


Found

by AndromedaPrime



Category: Transformers - All Media Types, Transformers: Robots in Disguise (2015)
Genre: Angst, Discussion of Abortion, M/M, Mech Preg, Mechpreg, Sparklings, Sticky Sexual Interfacing, that'll come later though :B
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-03-08
Updated: 2015-10-08
Packaged: 2018-03-16 21:34:31
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 12
Words: 34,789
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3503558
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AndromedaPrime/pseuds/AndromedaPrime
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After receiving life-changing news, Bumblebee struggles to come to terms with how badly he and Grimlock fragged up.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. S-S-Sparkling

**Author's Note:**

> Really, it was only a matter of time before I caved and wrote mechpreg for my new OTP.

He couldn’t shake that feeling of “off” that he’d been experiencing lately.

He wasn’t sure what it was that was making him feel like that. Physically he was fine, and even more so, he thought as he looked between his thighs at the leftover evidence that he and the Dinobot had gone at it again. He was contented – as far as he knew he shouldn’t be feeling like this.

Unless it was his self-doubting nature creeping up on him again.

Knowing him, it probably was.

Bumblebee sat up on the berth, passing an affectionate servo over Grimlock’s helm and smiling as the larger mech snorted in his recharge. A smile crossed the green mech’s faceplates, and he wound his arms tighter around Bumblebee’s middle, smushing his face against the yellow mech’s side. Sighing, Bee gently wriggled out of his berthmate’s possessive embrace and got to his pedes, doorwings twitching.

For a moment he felt perfectly fine. For that moment he thought that the worst of whatever bug he had caught had passed. It had been almost two or three Earth weeks by now, too long to put up with it. But…

He knew he was about to hurl moments before he felt the undigested energon from last night (mixed with other fluids, among other things) make its way up his throat. He didn’t care if he woke Grimlock up with how quickly and loudly he clambered out of his makeshift berthroom and out into the woods.

Bumblebee made it a fair distance into the forest before he fell to his knees and hands, retching loudly and with such force that his entire frame shook violently. The puddle of white slush, the color of undigested energon that had been stripped of its necessary nutrients, grew bigger and bigger.

“Primus,” the yellow mech groaned when the vomiting fit passed. He scooted back from what he had hurled up and put his servos to his helm, sighing. “Primus, what’s going on?”

“Bee?”

He felt Grimlock’s servo on his back. He looked up at the Dinobot with tired optics, exhaustion taking over his entire frame. Every bit of energy he had stored from his recharge cycle had been expended by his purging fit. “Hi Grimlock.”

“You been throwing up a lot, Bee. I think you need to have Fixit take a look at you.”

As with all the other times, Bumblebee was about to say “no”, that he was fine and that their resources would be better spent hunting down the Decepticons from the _Alchemor._ But this time was worse. He had to get to the bottom of this.

Strongarm had been taking on more and more of the leadership duties that he should have been doing. She was more than happy to do so, but she was only a rookie, and she had no training for that. Not like he did.

“I’ll ask Fixit tomorrow,” Bumblebee sighed heavily. He then checked his internal clock and noted that it was just after two in the morning. “Well, when the sun comes up.”

Grimlock smiled that crooked smile that always warmed Bumblebee’s spark. The yellow mech placed his digits under Grimlock’s sweet face and gently pulled him towards his own face, kissing the other mech. The Dinobot’s engine purred happily – if he had been in his dinosaur mode, his tail would have been wagging quite happily.

The tender moment was ruined when Bumblebee’s tanks churned again. He jerked away and onto his servos and knees, retching more white slush.

He heard the Dinobot sigh and felt him rub his back in a comforting gesture.

.-.-.

“It’s been a while since I’ve had to drag out the medical efficient – _equipment!_ what with everyone else onboard the _Alchemor_ being in stasis, which meant no one really needed it-”

Bumblebee let the Minicon chatter away, paying only half mind to what was being said. He nodded once, twice, just to ensure Fixit that he was being heard. The yellow mech absentmindedly rubbed at his midsection, where the source of his constant purging came from. He noted how it felt… more taut? if that was even possible.

“-see if I can fix this thing up and voila! Here Bee - _we_ \- are.” Fixit fired up whatever medical equipment it was that he had dragged out (well, that _Grimlock_ and Sideswipe that dragged out) and tapped his servos on the screen. It took a while for the screen to boot up but when it did, it gave him some command prompts that Bumblebee couldn’t read.

“Strongarm could you grab the banner – canner – _scanner_ – and hold it over Bumblebee’s… uh…,” the Minicon’s blue optics looked at the yellow mech in confusion. “Where did you say you were feeling sick?”

Bumblebee sighed and placed his servo over his optics. On any normal day he would be a lot more patient in re-explaining what needed to be explained, but he was sick to his tanks and mentally exhausted. “Digestive tanks. I haven’t been able to keep much energon down. It comes up a white slush.”

“Ah, right! Strongarm, hold it over his abdominal plates would you?”

The white and blue femme cautiously stared at the scanner that Fixit had gestured to, turning it over in her servos as she looked at every inch of it. “And how do I turn it on, Fixit?”

“Ah, I’ll be doing that from here!”

Bumblebee only stared at the cloudy sky above, hoping to Primus that whatever it was that he had could be fixed and quickly.

A welcome visage hovered in his visual field, a doofy and loving smile cast down at him. Bee smiled back and reached up, bringing Grimlock’s face toward him and kissing him all over his faceplates.

“Ugh, can’t you wait until you’re both alone?”

“Can it, Sides,” Bumblebee replied when he stopped kissing the Dinobot. “Fixit, the scan?”

“Oh, right, s-sorry I was attracted – _distracted_ by something in the sky. Cloud. Right, right, Strongarm could you-”

“I’m on it.” Strongarm heard the hum of the scanning wand in her servo turning on, then extending it over her commanding officer’s frame.

A loud growl echoed through the immediate area. Everyone jumped, except for Bumblebee, who only looked at Grimlock with an exasperated expression on his faceplates. “Take it easy, she’s not going to do anything to me.”

The Dinobot growled and bared his dentae at Strongarm, and only backed down when the femme narrowed her optics at him and grabbed a blaster from her subspace.

“Okay, enough. Fixit can you scan me now _please_?”

“Sure! Strongarm?”

The femme sighed and began waving the wand over Bumblebee’s frame. “Like this?”

“A little sower – _slower._ ”

Strongarm did so, furrowing her optic ridges at the strange noises coming from the device.

“Ah, I think that noise means it sound – _found_ – something.”

“Is it serious?” Bumblebee asked before he could help himself. His spark was already fraught with worry. He clenched his servos into fists and closed his optics, letting out a slow breath.

“I can’t tell right now, I still need to look at the scans. Hmm. I think I was mistaken. There doesn't seem to be anything out of the ordinary in your sank – _tank_. Are you sure it’s just there?”

“Well I am just throwing up white slush and I feel… exhausted.”

“Hmm, I’m going to bet – _set_ – this to scan your entire fr-frame and not just your tanks. Strongarm?”

“Got it.” The femme held the wand over Bumblebee’s helm, ignoring the possessive growl that emanated from Grimlock’s vocalizer, and slowly moved the wand, and her frame, downward, making sure that the scanning wand looked over each micrometer of her commanding officer’s frame.

When she reached Bumblebee’s midsection again, the wand vibrated in her servo, making her shout in surprise. A bright blue light pulsed.

“Oh, _that_ means it found s-something.”

Everyone waited with baited breath as Fixit pulled the data that the scanner had found up ontothe screen, looking at it but also looking at a guide of common ailments that could befall any random Cybertronian.

“Well, it’s certainly not tank rust! It i-i-isn’t something like a virus and… oh.”

“Oh?” The worry in Bumblebee’s vocalizer was obvious.

Fixit looked at Bumblebee, then Grimlock, back to Bumblebee, then he motioned Sideswipe and Strongarm over. “Tell me I’m not imagining sings - _things._ ”

“What is it?”

Fixit merely motioned to the medical guide he had opened on one half of the screen, then to the results he had grabbed from the scanning wand that were on the other half. Strongarm looked at the particular symbol that Fixit pointed to on the guide, then at what had been found to be ailing her commanding officer. Her optics brightened. “No, I see it too.”

“See what?” Sideswipe shoved Strongarm out of the way (and ignored the shove she gave him in return). He looked between the guide and the scans. “Well, yeah, I see it. What does it mean?”

“That’s a orb of light _._ What it means is that Bumblebee here is…” Fixit zoomed in on what it was that had been found in Bumblebee’s frame. A bright and shining little orb of light with consistent pulses that could only be a newly formed spark. “Is carrying a s-s-sparkling.”

This time everyone stared at Fixit.

A moment later, a loud crash echoed in the junkyard as Grimlock fell to the floor, processor having had a glitch of epic proportions.

Bumblebee looked at the Dinobot sprawled on the ground and sighed, closing his optics and holding his helm in his servos.

Perfect. Wonderful.

What else did the universe have in store for him?


	2. Tell

There was yet another large tree branch in his makeshift room.

Bumblebee placed his servos to his hips and sighed, shaking his helm. He looked to the opposite corner of where he stood in the room, lipplates pursed in irritation as he looked at the pile of no less than five, no more than ten, tree branches on top of each other.

And underneath and around them were other various trinkets that the Dinobot had brought into his quarters. A broken kite, part of a car wheel, an _entire_ car wheel, and some old brown, leather human toys that he had heard referred to as footballs.

The yellow mech crouched down and lifted the new addition to this strange pile of gifts over his shoulder strut, huffing as the wind was nearly knocked out of him. It was far too easy for him to get tired lately – he didn’t like it. He couldn’t afford to be getting exhausted this quickly. He had a team to lead.

Bumblebee was too busy trying to neatly arrange the tree branch to hear the footsteps coming up to him, but he realized too late when a pair of very strong green arms wrapped around his chassis and lifted him up.

“Grimlock?”

The Dinobot purred his engine and began dancing with the smaller mech. “We’re havin’ a sparrrkling, we’re havin’ a sparrrrrkling!”

The excitement was evident in the green mech’s voice. He had been chanting this every day since they had received the news.

It didn’t take long for the Dinobot to recover from the highly unexpected news. He had jumped to his pedes and picked Bumblebee up, shouting happily that he was going to be a sire.

His tanks churned, again. Bumblebee jerked and made a retching noise. Luckily Grimlock heard and let Bee down, watching as the yellow mech sprinted outside and purged more white slush. The Dinobot winced as he heard the mech purging, wandering outside and standing guard over his carrying berthmate as he retched.

When Bumblebee was done, Grimlock quietly helped him to his pedes. “I’m sorry Bee.”

The lieutenant sighed and placed his servos to his midsection, closing his optics as he willed himself to not vomit again. “Just, don’t do that next time. Sudden movement makes me dizzy, then makes me purge.”

Grimlock nodded. He wanted to curl around the yellow mech and hug him, place his servo on the other mech’s midsection and think about the tiny life that Bumblebee carried inside him that was made from both of them. But he simply backed up as Bumblebee walked away from him. He wanted to follow, but found himself thinking that he should really leave the mech alone with his thoughts.

.-.-.

He crossed his forearms over his midsection, frowning at his protective coding and at the ground he walked on.

Out of the corner of his optics he saw Strongarm’s fist collide with Sideswipe’s helm as they sparred. “Sparred” he thought in his processor – it was really just a reason for Strongarm to punch the other mech in the face.

Though the red mech had been getting really good at coming back with his own blocks and hits. When it started getting to violent, though, he would have to put a stop to it.

Russell was at school, and Denny had said something about making some sort of deal and needing to be gone most of the day. For that he was glad; he really wasn’t up for explaining to the humans what was going on with him. And with any luck he never would have to.

Fixit was busy doing a task that Denny had asked him to do, stacking old television sets atop each other in a cart so they could be put into one of the aisles when Denny came back. The Minicon was humming to himself, and Bumblebee vaguely recognized the tune as either an old Cybertronian lullaby, or a drinking song that would be better suited for Maccadam’s.

The yellow mech steeled himself for the conversation that was about to ensure. Well, almost did. But there was no way he could ever be fully prepared for this.

“Fixit?”

“Ah!” The Minicon clutched the television set and reared back in shock, big blue optics looking everywhere for the source of the voice until he found it, staring right at him from a yellow frame. He cleared his vocalizer and chuckled nervously. “Sorry you cared – _s-scared_ me, Bumblebee.”

“I’m sorry Fixit. I just…” Bumblebee’s spark roiled at the thought of what he was about to say. But he had to say it. He realized that he still had his forearms crossed over his midsection to he moved them away, putting his servos on his hips. “I… need to know something.”

“Yes?” the Minicon asked as he put the television set in his arms away.

“Given by the guide you had, there somehow had been some instances of sparklings showing up in prisoners aboard the _Alchemor_. Had there been?” the yellow mech asked, wanting to make sure he was right on his assumptions.

Fixit nodded, smiling. “Sometimes we would get prisoners aboard t-that, upon a peck - _check_ , were found to be with spark. When I was aboard on duty there were six instances.”

“Okay. I was just making sure. Now my question is… by any chance, do the ship’s computers have a guide on…” Bumblebee sighed heavily and decided he needed to say the word. “On termination?”

Fixit dropped the television he had just grabbed from the pile, ignoring it as it shattered on the ground. He stared at Bumblebee and blinked his optics, shaking his helm twice before he said. “I don’t know to be honest. That I know of, the s-six were kept out of stasis until they all had their s-sparklings.”

“So they were put into stasis after they had their sparklings?”

The Minicon nodded.

"Oh."Bumblebee stood there awkwardly, staring at the ground again. “Could you maybe check?”

“Once I’m done with putting teas – _these_ sets away I can check.”

“Alright.” Bee sighed and nodded. “Thanks.”

He turned away, about to walk back toward Sideswipe and Strongarm to tell them to cool it down on the sparring, but then he remembered something. “Oh, Fixit?”

“Yes?”

“Don’t… don’t tell anyone else what I just asked you for. Especially Grimlock.”

“Oh, uh, sure.” Fixit nodded. “Sure, I’ll make sure to beep - _keep_ this secret.”

Bumblebee only nodded, studying the Minicon with a critical optic before he walked back to the clearing where Sideswipe and Strongarm were _still_ sparring. Primus, those two never did tire, did they?

“-was completely against the rules Sideswipe, I said no touching my audio receptors!”

“Oh and what about when you _yanked my helm?!_ Wasn’t that against the rules?!”

Strongarm growled deep in her chassis, and before Bumblebee could get there she launched herself at Sideswipe, both of them wrestling each other on the ground. The lieutenant sighed and reached down, dragging his cadet off of the red mech. “No more sparring for today you two.”

The femme still glared at Sideswipe and made a motion with her servo that clearly said _I’m watching you_. Then she turned to Bumblebee. “I’m sorry sir, Sideswipe got a little carried away.”

“Oh and you didn’t?”

Bumblebee’s patience was at a low, so he huffed in irritation and said, “Alright you two, settle down before I make you both do pushups.”

That got them quiet. Sideswipe whistled and walked away toward where Fixit was still loading the televisions onto the cart.

“Are you excited, lieutenant?”

Bumblebee turned around and looked cautiously at the bright-optic’d cadet, tilting his helm to the side. “Am I excited about what?”

“You know! The sparkling?” Strongarm bounced up and down on her pedes, arms bent up to her chassis and servos curled into fists as she smiled. “Aren’t you excited that you and Grimlock are gonna be creators and have a sparkling?”

Bumblebee was used to smiling and faking some sort of excitement or interest at certain things to keep the peace between him and other Cybertronians. However, he found himself unable to smile. He merely stared at Strongarm for a few moments with a heavy expression on his faceplates. The femme caught on, excited posture slacking and happy look on her faceplates slipping away. “You’re not excited, are you.”

It wasn’t a question. A statement of fact.

Drawing air into his intakes, Bumblebee didn’t shake his helm in the negative but he only said, “I’m sick. I purge every morning. My entire frame aches. I’m consistently having to refuel, which depletes the amount of energon we have for everyone. I still have a team to lead. If I were back on Cybertron I might be a tad more excited and less worrisome about my duties but…” he trailed off, feeling he had said too much.

Strongarm placed a servo on his shoulder strut, lipplates turned into a frown. “But?” she said, motioning with her other servo for him to continue speaking.

Bumblebee let out the air that he had taken in before. “I’m terminating. If I can, I’m going to terminate. I can’t do this.”

He would give Strongarm credit for trying to hide the sad look on her faceplates, but she ultimately failed. She only withdrew her servo and nodded slowly, clearing her vocalizer. “Have you told Grimlock?”

Bumblebee’s spark ached terribly at the thought of having to tell the Dinobot. But Grimlock was the sire. He needed to know.

But he was not going to let him change his mind on this.

The yellow mech sighed and shook his helm. “I haven’t told him yet.”

“You should, as soon as you can. Don’t leave him out in the cold.”

“I won’t. I can’t do that to him.”

In reality Bumblebee wished that he could just get it without anything being said or fussed about. Unfortunately Grimlock knew.

His processor thought of the spark-broken Dinobot’s face. He hated that image and wished that he wasn’t carrying in the first place.

.-.-.

When he walked back to the berthroom that he and Grimlock shared, he found yet _another_ tree branch and… was that a fragging car engine?

Bumblebee sighed and slapped his servos over his faceplates. Then he heard the sounds of pedes walking in his direction; he removed his servos and turned around to see Grimlock at the entrance of the room. The green mech was in his Dinobot mode, something long and metal in his jaws as his thick tail wagged excitedly, blue optics looking happily at him.

“Grimlock,” Bumblebee said in an exasperated tone, moving the old metal pipe from the Dinobot’s jaws and tossing it to the pile in the corner, “you need to stop bringing these things. They’re taking up too much space in here.”

Grimlock took on his bipedal mode, but the smile never left his faceplates. He enveloped the smaller mech, his mate and carrier of his sparkling, in a hug and buried his faceplates in the crook of Bumblebee’s neck. “Sorry, Bumblebee. I’m just so excited.”

Yup, there it was. Bumblebee withdrew his electromagnetic field and placed his servo on the back of Grimlock’s helm, sighing as his spark weighed even heavier. “We… need to talk, Grimlock.”

The Dinobot put him down and smiled at him happily. “About what? Did Fixit say something? Is the sparkling gonna take after you, or after _me_?” he asked, puffing up in pride.

_I can’t do this. Primus, I can’t._

Bumblebee smiled wanly at the Dinobot and put his helm to rest against the broad, comforting chassis that emanated comfort, love, and happiness at him. “Well we can’t tell just yet. What I wanted to ask you was… why are you bringing these things here?”

“What things?”

 _“Those,_ ” Bumblebee sighed, waving a servo at the pile of odds and ends in the corner. “Why do you insist on bringing them to me when I don’t have a use for them? Pit, I don’t even think Denny would want those.”

Grimlock stared at the pile of things he had been bringing, as if he hadn’t even thought about it before. Then he shrugged. “Dunno. I just see things and immediately think of you and bring them.”

Bumblebee shook his helm. “Well, help me take them out then.”

His spark sank as the Dinobot nuzzled him and kissed him before he fetched what he had been bringing in and took it out. Bee sighed heavily and placed a servo over his abdominal plating.

_Primus, Optimus, anyone… how am I going to do this?_


	3. Problem

The soft fluttering sensations in his midsection refused to go away. He would have thought it was the sparkling, but the spark was just a small orb of light for now and didn’t have a frame to go with it. Chances were that it was his tanks acting up out of sheer anxiety.

Bee stared at the wall of thick cardboard and brick and metal, all materials that made up the four walls of the tiny berthroom for him and Grimlock. He didn’t think of anything except for how much he wanted that fluttering in his abdomen to go away, and how heavy Grimlock’s arm was when it was draped over his frame like this.

The Dinobot’s frame was pressed against his back, chassis rising and falling gently as he recharged. Even in sleep the Dinobot had a doofy grin on his faceplates as he snored.

It was six in the morning, about half an hour until the sun came up. He had wanted to contact Fixit late yesterday when he and Grimlock had a chance to be apart. However, that hadn’t come to pass; the Dinobot had pinned him to the berth and while part of Bumblebee’s processor would have protested against the thick spike entering his valve, the part of his frame that demanded a good, hard frag won over.

Reaching between his thighs and dragging his digits through the leftover mess, Bee brought them to his optic level and frowned at the tacky mix of fluids before he wiped them off his digits and onto the surface of the berth. He slowly lifted Grimlock’s arm off of and away from his frame and slid off the berth, gently placing Grimlock’s arm on the surface.

The Dinobot snored and made a soft whining noise as he curled into himself, bemoaning the loss of the comforting feeling of his mate’s frame against his.

Bumblebee stalled and ran his digits over the larger mech’s faceplates, sighing before he went out for his walk. Hopefully, Fixit might already be up. The Minicon was always the first one of the five Cybertronians to wake in the mornings.

The air outside was cool and damp and the sky was beginning to lighten up. He could already feel the condensation forming on his wings and windows. A doorwing twitched in irritation.

The fluttering feeling came back again. He rubbed at his midsection with a servo as he trotted toward the main area of the junkyard that Fixit usually stationed himself at, but the Minicon was nowhere to be found.  Bumblebee sighed heavily and shook his helm. “I suppose it’s too early even for you,” he murmured to no one in particular.

Then, like clockwork, his tanks churned.

He knew the drill. Run to the forest, get on your servos and knees, and shudder and shake as white slush came out of your oral cavity.

If there wasn’t a noted medical condition that might be caused by so much retching, he might just be the first to develop it.

This time tears came out of his optics as he purged copious amounts of white slush, the optical fluids dripping off his silver faceplates and mixing with the ejected energon. His processor spun, his joints ached, and the internal bits of his chassis itched. Primus, when was this all going to end?

“Bumblebee?”

_FRAG._

The yellow bot looked over his shoulder in the direction of the junkyard and saw Russell standing a fair distance away, clad in human sleepwear and rubbing his eyes.

“Oh, hi, hi Russell.”

The boy yawned and looked at the mech with sleepy eyes. “You’re… throwing up? I didn’t know bots could do that.”

“Yeah, we can.” Bumblebee further proved his point by retching again. He shuddered and his arms wobbled, so when the vomiting fit passed he sat back on his legs and wiped his mouth with the back of his servo. “Sorry you had to see me like this.”

“It’s fine, I guess.” Russell shrugged. “It happens to everyone. Can you see someone to make it better though?”

Bumblebee looked at the boy again and arched an optic ridge. “What do you mean by make it better?”

“Y’know, like, a doctor? Don’t they have doctors on your planet?”

His processor caught onto the fact that the human was asking if he could see a medic; he hadn’t heard the word “doctor” for so long that he had forgotten its meaning, and his spark also ached for a certain cantankerous medic that had tended him so well eons ago. If only Ratchet were on this planet.

“We do, but since we have no spacebridge and no way of getting home…”

“Oh. I’m sorry,” the boy stuffed his hands into his pajama pockets and toed the ground awkwardly. “I forgot that you guys don’t have a way to get back home.”

“It’s okay. Sometimes we forget too.” Bumblebee sighed. He sorely wished they did – accessibility to a proper termination wouldn’t be hinging on whether or not Fixit could find something about it in the _Alchemor_ ’s computer systems. And whether or not someone in the team actually had the medical experience to do so.

He had been hoping the Minicon might be able to do it, but as he thought more about it… he was only a guard aboard the ship. Unless the guide could tell him how to do it himself.

“What’s making you sick?”

“This planet.”

The joke flew over Russell’s head. He sighed and looked at the forest. “Most of this planet does. I’m sure Cybertron’s a lot prettier than this backwoods part.”

“I wouldn’t say it’s prettier… I’m simply just used to Cybertron. And, uh… the planet making me sick was a joke. Something’s up but I’ll hopefully get it taken care of. With or without a medic.”

“I hope you do. I know it sucks being sick.”

Bumblebee nodded. If only the young human knew to the extent that he was really sick.

.-.-.

Bumblebee stayed in the forest, sitting against a thick tree even after Russell left him alone and went back to the junkyard. Earth’s sun was nearly completely over the horizon, welcoming another day.

The yellow mech congratulated himself on it being a morning where he went a full Earth hour without needing to throw up.

He slowly got to his pedes so he wouldn’t upset his tanks, breathing evenly so he didn’t mess up his equilibrium.

Then Grimlock showed up out of nowhere from between two trees and enveloped him in another crushing hug, giggling. Bumblebee groaned and reached toward the Dinobot’s face, pulling an old wooden baseball bat from the hold of his jaws and tossing it to the ground.

“There you are! How’re you and our lil’ bitlet today?”

Bee shut his optics tight, processor chanting _don’t purge, don’t purge, don’t purge_ over and over again. It seemed to work for now. He cracked open an optic and sighed. “We’re fine. Can you please put us…well, _me_ , down?”

“Oh, right, I’m sorry.” Grimlock put Bumblebee back on his pedes. “Are you feelin’ alright?”

_No, because I don’t know how to tell you I can’t become a creator, and I don’t want to see your spark-broken face when I say I’m going to terminate if possible._

“Yeah, just,” Bee reached around his back and rubbed at the nape of his neck, “tired. I need to go talk to Fixit about something.”

“I’ll go with ya!” Grimlock turned into his Dinobot mode, tail wagging. “Is it about the sparkling?”

_Yes._

“It’s not, actually. I need to ask him about the status of our captures of the escaped Decepticon prisoners. We need an update on how many we’ve caught and… how many we still have left to catch.”

The Dinobot’s tail ceased its wagging and he took on his bipedal mode again, sighing. “Uhh… nevermind then.”

Bumblebee watched Grimlock stride away, feeling oddly happy that he had managed to get him off of his proverbial back. He rubbed again at his midsection, thankful that he hadn’t purged again after all, and headed to the junkyard.

Fixit was at the ship’s computer terminal again, frantically looking something up. The Minicon was so immersed in his research that he jumped, again, when Bumblebee approached, cleared his vocalizer, and said, “Fixit?”

“Ah! Lease – _Please_ don’t scare me like that!”

“I’m sorry, I…” Bumblebee tilted his helm to the side and narrowed his optics as he stared at the Cybertronian script that crossed the holographic screen. One of his secret talents (one of his only ones, he felt lately) was the ability to read text backwards. “Are you just now looking up text on carrying cycles?”

“Not just now, s-sir. Since last night.”

_“Since last night?”_

“I am trying every single form of the words “carrying cycle” and inp-putting them into the _Alchemor_ ’s search engines but v-very few things are s-showing on the results.”

Bumblebee shifted his gaze from the script that described in rather graphic detail how a sparkling came into existence and looked at the Minicon. “Define “very few things”.”

Fixit stopped his frantic tapping at the console’s keypads and sighed, big blue optics staring at his team leader. He then looked back down and brought multiple windows up on the screen. “By very few things I mean I have only found tree – _three_ brief reports filed away on the c-computers about c-carrying cycles.”

“And… did you find anything on termination?”

“J-just one.” Fixit pulled up another window and sighed. “T-this is the only one I could find.”

Bumblebee hesitated where he stood, then walked over to the other side of the console so he could read the guide himself. He skimmed the text and got to the bottom of the guide far too quickly.

The information he had gleaned was next to nothing, and useless. 95% of the text was about the history of termination, and how it was done before current medical and technological advancements on Cybertron. The other 5% glossed over the procedure itself, referring to anatomical parts with scientific names that he couldn’t place, didn’t know.

He felt his sparkrate rise rapidly, and he got down to his knees to put himself nearly at optic level with the Minicon. He steadied his breathing rate, which he wasn’t aware had been coming in very shallow, fast, and deep breaths, and made sure he went over his words in his processor before he spoke. “Fixit, are you sure that was the only one you were able to find?”

Fixit looked sympathetic (and afraid, Bumblebee thought briefly, and he backed up a bit to put more distance between him and the much smaller mech) as he nodded his helm. “Y-yes, sir. This was all I c-could find.”

Bumblebee stared a minute longer at the Minicon, then looked back to the guide and his optics reread the text as he gleaned a point of information:

_Prematurely born sparklings can still be viable at four and a half lunar cycles out of the six that they gestate._

“Fixit, can you see how old the sparkling is?”

“Sir, why-”

“Just do it. Hurry.”

Fixit sighed and fetched the same scanner that Strongarm had used on him a few days before, holding it out to Bumblebee. “I can scan but I can’t hold it.”

Bumblebee thinned his lipplates and grabbed the scanner far more roughly than necessary and positioned it over his midsection, waiting for Fixit to give him the go ahead to scan. The Minicon fiddled with something at the computer terminal, then nodded.

The yellow mech saw black and white images appear on the holographic screen. It took him a moment to realize that those were his internals, and the bright, tiny speck he saw was the sparkling.

“You’re a-actually at a fulllunar cycle, Bumblebee. A little b-bit over, it see-”

“Can you terminate it?”

“What? No,” Fixit shook his helm, and Bumblebee would give the Minicon credit for trying to keep the slightly horrified look out of his optics. “N-no I can’t, I’m not trained for that.”

“Then how do you know about the six sparklings carried to term aboard the _Alchemor_?”

“With all due respect, all the s-staff was required to know about this stuff. Just b-because I know and have this g-guide doesn't mean I know how to do t-terminations.”

Bee gripped the scanner in a tight grip and he did his best to not let his fear, his anger, his helplessness that he felt cross over his faceplates. He failed. He threw the scanner at the wall behind Fixit. “Call Cybertron.”

“F-for what?”

“I need a space bridge, I need to get to a clinic so they can take care of this problem.”

“Problem?”

_FRAG._

Bumblebee turned around to see Strongarm and Sideswipe staring at him. He gave Strongarm a pointed look and said, “What we talked about last night.” He ignored Sideswipe’s curious look and turned back to Fixit. “Now, I need a space bridge.”

“Sir,” this time Strongarm spoke and crossed over the distance in a few strides, putting herself next to her superior officer, “with all due respect, Fixit’s computer terminal doesn’t have the capabilities to contact Cybertron because it was destroyed in the crash. We’ve established this already.”

“I don’t _care_!” The yellow mech was livid and he almost felt guilty for making his cadet and the Minicon jump in shock at his loud voice. He huffed and looked at the wiring underneath the computer terminal. “There’s a way to fix this and call Cybertron for assistance.”

“D-don’t you th-think I’ve tried that already?”

“Well try again!”

“Sir-”

“If I can say something else, Bumblebee, you might not be able to t-t-terminate because the sparkling is currently f-forming a connection with your spark.”

“What do you mean? I can terminate before four lunar cycles and you said I’m at one lunar cycle.”

“Y-yes, but did you read his – _this_?” Fixit pulled up the guide on termination again, highlighting and pointing at a particular line. Everyone crowded around and read the text:

_Though sparklings can survive out of the carrier’s frame at four and a half lunar cycles, and termination is legal before this point, the process of terminating a sparkling is a very tricky process if done after the first lunar cycle due to the sparkling forming a hard connection with the carrier’s spark. The instances of a carrier suffering from severe injury to the spark increases if a termination is attempted after the first lunar cycle, and the closer the sparkling gets to viability, the more the chances of the carrier dying during a termination attempt increase._

Bumblebee felt the fluttering come back to his tanks. He pressed his servos against his abdominal plating.

“There are few facilities on Cybertron that can do a termination at this rate without m-much injury. And most require ointments – _appointments_.”

“Which will be impossible to get because you can’t fix the communications link to Cybertron. So you’re saying,” Strongarm sighed, “even if lieutenant Bumblebee tried to terminate even on Cybertron in any of their medical facilities… he could suffer from complications?”

“Unf-f-fortunately.”

“Terminate?”

The one voice that Bumblebee hadn’t wanted to hear. Everyone turned around to see the confused Dinobot of their team standing a fair distance away from the computer terminal that they were all huddled around. Grimlock looked at Bumblebee and tilted his helm. “What’s this about “terminate”?”

Bumblebee stared at the Dinobot with empty optics. He moved his servos away from his midsection and quietly left the other Cybertronians where they were.

Once he passed Grimlock he felt the Dinobot reach for him and try to place a comforting servo on his shoulder strut, but Bumblebee roughly shrugged it off and ignored everyone else’s voices calling his name.

.-.-.

The mechanimal-Dinobot coding in Grimlock’s body was infuriated at the thought that his mate wanted to get rid of their sparkling. Be done with it, forget it ever happened.

Grimlock never would.

The Cybertronian part of his coding, however, was saddened.

After a few hours, nearing sundown, he set out to find Bumblebee in the forest and didn’t find the yellow mech in any of his usual spots. He eventually found the yellow mech sitting by a small lake a far distance away from the junkyard, and well away from any other humans.

It had taken him a good long while to calm himself down, and for the others to calm him down, after finding out what the Autobot lieutenant wanted to do without talking to him about it first. He had gone through a strange array of emotions – grief, anger, feeling betrayed, upset, sad, and now dejected.

Why hadn’t Bumblebee come to him?

The yellow mech’s doorwings, Grimlock’s favorite part of his mate next to his sweet and beautiful face, were stuck high up in the air, stiffened in anger.

“Bee?” Grimlock would have sat next to the carrying mech and gently hugged him but the posture of the frame and the wings told him to stay away. So he kept himself back, about six steps away from the lieutenant.

A moment passed, and one of the wings flicked. Bumblebee moved his helm slightly so it was turned in Grimlock’s general direction, but he didn’t meet the Dinobot’s optics.

“Bee? Are you okay?”

Bumblebee said nothing. He only moved his helm again so he gazed at the surface of the water. He grabbed a stone that was nearby him and threw it in the lake.

“Bee, can you please talk, or something?”

“What do you want to talk about, Grimlock?”

“You know what I want to talk about.”

Bumblebee heaved a heavy sigh and his door wings relaxed. “Fine. You want the truth? I can’t have this sparkling, Grimlock. I’m sorry. I know you’re excited, and I know you want to fight me on this, but… I can’t.”

Grimlock took a step forward, looking at his mate’s back with saddened optics. “Why?”

“I can’t. This was never in my plans for my life cycle after Optimus restored Cybertron. I was just going to be a cop, keep the peace on Cybertron and work, work, work for the rest of my solar cycles until my deactivation day. But now, with Optimus giving me this assignment to catch the Decepticons, all of us stuck here on Earth with no immediate way off planet… Grimlock,” he got to his pedes and with a shaky breath, turned around. Grimlock saw the tears welling up in those blue optics and blinked back his own. “I can’t. I have to take care of you. Of Strongarm, Sideswipe, Fixit, and Denny and Russell.”

“You can still do that,” Grimlock insisted, looking sadly at the smaller mech, “and _we_ can still take care of our sparkling.”

“Grimlock, you all can fight. Even Russell can find his way out of tough situations, with some help. This sparkling… they’ll be completely dependent on us for Primus knows how long. I don’t know how, I _can’t_ care for a newspark for so long.” Bumblebee blinked his optics, tears streaming down his silver faceplates. “I just can’t.”

The Dinobot had to admit that Bumblebee had a point. Thick silence fell between the both of them, broken only by the soft pedesteps upon the ground as Grimlock fully closed the distance between him and his mate. He placed a servo on Bumblebee’s shoulder strut, and was slightly taken aback when Bumblebee pressed himself against his front, burying his faceplates into his broad chassis.

The green and black mech hesitantly wrapped his arms around the shivering frame of the yellow mech and placed his helm on top of Bee’s. It was then that he realized that Bumblebee wasn’t shivering - he was crying.

Frame shaking, racked with sobs, Bumblebee choked on his tears and said in a thick voice, “I’m s-s-sorry. I c-can’t raise this sparkling, but I can’t t-terminate it. It’s too late. I missed the window. I can’t take a bridge b-back to Cyb-bertron.” He shuddered. “I’m stuck. How are we going to do this, Grimlock?”

Here was where the Dinobot would have said something that he had always heard - “We’ll figure it out.” But those words had never been of much comfort to him, so he didn’t say them. If they weren’t helpful to him, how could they help the mech crying in his arms?

All he could do was help them sit on the ground, next to the lake, and hold his mate in his arms as he sobbed loudly.

A long while later, Bumblebee’s sobs ceased and he simply laid against the larger mech’s chassis and frame, optics dimmed. He sighed heavily and thought of the one mech that was always able to instill confidence in him. He bemoaned that the mech was long gone. How he could have used that confidence right about now.

_Optimus, you took care of seven of us in total, along with five humans. I only have four, and two humans, and I feel like I’m going to go insane. How did you do this?_


	4. Better than Yesterday

They spent the night in the forest, sleeping by that lake. Grimlock was too emotionally exhausted from the day’s events to pick Bee up and take him back to their shared quarters, so he curled around the carrying mech.

Admittedly, having the big mech curled around him and that warm spark pulsing against his backplates, calmed Bumblebee down a lot. What helped even more was the knowledge that he wasn’t alone in these worries. Now Grimlock knew. Now he knew.

The Dinobot had an arm stretched out, resting his helm on the upper half as he snored softly. Bee had woken up a while ago but stayed in the mech’s embrace, looking up at the sky that slowly brightened above him. He scooted closer into the Dinobot’s embrace and sighed softly. For the first time in a while, his processor wasn’t an utter mess of emotions.

He stared at the sky, noting how with each passing minute the dark blue of very early morning lightened to sky blue. Birds chirped gaily from the trees around them. A large bird, likely a hawk, swooped over the trees.

Bumblebee trekked his servo down to his midsection, splaying his servo and digits over his abdominal plates. Now that he knew that he couldn’t terminate the sparkling, his spark weighed heavy in… sadness? Dejection?

The yellow mech wondered what was next. What else he would have to do. What else he and Grimlock would have to do.

The Dinobot stirred beside him, blearily opening his optics. He saw Bumblebee wide awake, and sighed. “You okay?”

Bumblebee nodded.

Grimlock uncurled himself from around Bumblebee and stretched out. He saw the pensive look on the team leader’s faceplates and put his helm against his. “What are you thinking about?”

Bumblebee closed his optics, sighed, and then reopened them. “The sparkling,” he said in a dejected tone. “And what we’re going to do.”

That had been one of the things on the Dinobot’s processor in his recharge; the other had been what the sparkling would be like and look like. He stroked Bumblebee’s faceplates with a digit. “Gonna have to keep it.”

The yellow mech scoffed. “I’m aware, unfortunately.” _What I wouldn’t give for a way back to Cybertron right now._

Grimlock stood up, looking down at Bee and waiting for him to get up. After a few minutes of the yellow mech just lying there, Grimlock cleared his vocalizer and asked, “Are you gonna get up?”

Bumblebee sighed. “Warning. I’m going to throw up.”

Grimlock nodded and reached his servo out, letting Bumblebee take it so he could help himself get up. True to what he had said, Bumblebee immediately doubled over and retched white slush. Grimlock helped Bumblebee stay standing up as he purged violently, frame jerking. When the mech was done he groaned in pain and wiped his mouth with the back of his servo, placing the other one across his midsection.

Primus. He wasn’t looking forward to this.

“Let’s get you back to the junkyard,” he heard Grimlock say. He was grateful when the Dinobot gently lifted him up and held him in his arms, carrying him the entire way.

He felt content. He curled into the Dinobot’s frame and sighed heavily, optics closing.

.-.-.

Grimlock was happy that at least he knew what his mate was going through. Struggling with the fact that he was carrying. That he didn’t have to keep it a secret.

He held Bumblebee’s helm to his neck and looked down, smiling softly at the peaceful expression on the mech’s faceplates. It was probably the most peaceful he’d seen him in quite a long while. Definitely since they had discovered what was ailing him, making him purge every morning.

The junkyard came into his view. He walked in and found the other three Cybertronians waking up, readying to start their duties for the day.

Fixit looked at him from the command console and grinned. “Ah, th-there they are.”

Strongarm smiled at Grimlock. Sideswipe sighed and asked “How long did it take you to find him?”

“Found him pretty quick. He was just…” the Dinobot trailed off and shook his helm. “We just stayed out the night.” Grimlock looked at the recharging team leader in his arms. “Gonna take him to the berthroom. He needs his rest.”

“Sure thing,” Strongarm nodded. “If he asks where we are, we’re scoping out the _Alchemor_ ’s crash site again. Fixit thinks there might be some stuff in there we could haul here and use.”

“Sure, got it.” Grimlock headed off for the berthroom, taking care to not wake his sleeping mate.

Bumblebee sighed and stirred when he was laid on the slab of metal that passed for a berth, but he didn’t wake. He just curled into himself, curving an arm on the berth and resting his helm on it. Grimlock smiled when he saw the yellow mech protectively wind his other arm around his midsection, servo right over where the sparkling would be.

He wanted to curl up to Bee, but he felt that the yellow mech might be better if left alone for a bit. He placed his helm on Bee’s cheekplate, purring softly before he went away to help Strongarm and Sideswipe on their mission.

.-.-.

Bumblebee woke up in time to see Grimlock’s back retreating in the direction of the junkyard, having no recollection of how he got to the berth. Not that he was complaining. He stretched out on the berth, able to have it to himself after a long time of having to share it, and closed his optics.

His servo twitched and he realized he had it over his abdominal plating. He removed it quickly, tucking both his servos under his helm.

Fixit had said that he had found some files on carrying cycles. It didn’t matter how short they were; Bumblebee knew he had to get his servos on them, since he was going to have to go through this. Anything would help.

He cursed his state and curled his servos into fists, pressing them against his optics.

Behind his optics he saw himself miserable. Grimlock was happy.

He would do anything for the Dinobot, but… this was one that he wasn’t willing to give him. Until he found out that both of them didn’t have much of a choice in this.

After a long while of him trying to get to recharge again, the fluttering in his midsection returned. Bumblebee sighed heavily and got to his pedes. He wasn’t going to be sleeping.

Grimlock, Sideswipe, and Strongarm were notably absent from the junkyard as he approached Fixit at the terminal. The Minicon looked up and blinked his optics, and Bumblebee noted how he seemed to steel himself for something before he cautiously said, “Good morning s-sir.”

The yellow mech gave the Minicon a wan smile to let him ease a little bit. “Good morning Fixit.”

There was silence between the both of them for a few moments as Fixit looked warily at Bumblebee. He cleared his vocalizer and turned away, breaking optic contact. “Are you feeling better than you d-did yesterday?”

Bumblebee placed his servos to his hips and sighed, smile slacking off. “Might not seem like it, but yeah. Better than yesterday, at least emotionally.” He looked at Fixit again, lipplates curving downward in a frown. “And Fixit?”

The Minicon stopped what he was doing, inputting data in the computer console, and looked at the team leader.

Bumblebee closed his optics and then reopened them. “I’m sorry for how I acted yesterday. That was very unprofessional of me. I’ll need to keep my emotions in check.”

Fixit stared at Bumblebee a minute, blinking his optics a few times. The yellow mech immediately felt that his apology came across as forced or not genuine and was about to apologize for that as well, but then Fixit smiled at him. “You’re scared and it’s to b-be expected. Thank you for your apology, however. I accept it.”

The yellow mech felt as if a weight had been lifted off of his spark, and he grinned again, placing his servo on his forehelm and sighing. “Thank you. I really appreciate it.”

Fixit chuckled. “Hey, you’re c-carrying. You can have two tantrums a week forgiven.”

“Speaking of carrying,” Bumblebee half couldn’t believe he had said those words, “you mentioned that you had found some texts on the _Alchemor_ ’s computers about carrying cycles. Any chance you might be able to bring those up and give them to me?”

“Of course! You can start reading through them right now if you’d l-like.” Fixit rolled away from the holographic screens, beckoning Bumblebee to come around. The yellow mech did so, and found a text file already pulled up for him to start reading.

“Thank you, but I was… oh, wait.” Bee sighed. “We don’t have any datapads to place this information on.”

“Datapads?”

“Well, yeah. So I don’t have to sit here and take over your space every morning.”

“Oh, right! Well, I asked the others to took – _look_ at the crash site again to see if they can f-find anything we can use. They might find a spare datapad or t-two, who knows.”

Bee nodded and looked at the text on the screens, sighing as his optics darted across the lines of Cybertronian script. There were sentences telling in rather graphic detail about how sparklings were conceived, and he groaned internally, thinking in the back of his processor _I already know how I got into this mess_.

The text was too cutesy for his taste so he had to swallow his pride and slog through the reading. There was information on how much energon to take in, nutritional supplements to add to your daily dosage, acceptable activities during carrying.

Then he came across a picture that showed the stages of gestation, along with examples of how big the sparkling was (or should be). For each lunar cycle of the six that it took to gestate a sparkling, there was a picture. Fixit had told him that he was a full lunar cycle. The picture he saw for a sparkling at a full lunar cycle showed that it was half the size of a curled fist.

Bee raised his servo and curled it into itself, forming a fist, and stared hard at it. He then placed it over his midsection and looked at his reflection in the holographic screen.

That was twice the size of his sparkling. His sparkling could fit in his servo.

He removed his servo and continued reading, skimming the information.

“Hey, Fixit?”

The Minicon popped his helm up from behind the console where he had been cleaning the internal systems, ridding it of dust and dirt. Bee looked at him and sighed. “I had meant to ask you before. The six Decepticons that had sparklings on board the _Alchemor…_ who were they?”

Fixit furrowed his optic ridges in thought. “Most of them I don’t member – _remember_ because I heard virtually nothing of them, other than why they were aboard the ship a-and that they bore sparklings. If I’m not mistaken I think most have passed on.”

“Do you remember any of them?”

The Minicon looked slightly uncomfortable. He sighed. “One of the Decepticons we’re currently bunting – _hunting_ for. Steeljaw.”

Bumblebee nearly fell where he stood. He leaned forward and steadied himself by placing his servos on the console and stared at the Minicon. “Steeljaw?”

Fixit nodded. “He was brought onto the _Alchemor_ but in the examination before he was to be put in a stasis p-pod, he was found to be carrying a mechling. As a result he was placed under heavy guard in a cell until he had his sparkling. Unf-fortunately,” the little orange mech sighed and looked down, “he lost his son to premature emergence.”

Normally Bee would not have felt anything resembling sympathy for that Decepticon, but the fact that he had carried, and that he was carrying, made his spark stir in some sort of sadness. He sighed and scrolled further down the text on the screen. “What happened to the viable sparklings born aboard the _Alchemor?_ ”

“They were taken back to Cybertron and p-put up for adoption. I don’t know much beyond that.”

The yellow mech felt his spark twist in pity for the sparklings. His own sparkling fluttered within his frame… at least he thought it was his sparkling.

He looked up at the sound of approaching vehicles and the loud steps of a Dinobot. He smiled when he saw that Grimlock had a few datapads from the crashed ship in his mouth, and hoped that one was blank.


	5. Weak and Vulnerable

It was a few weeks later that he knew it was his sparkling.

He woke in the middle of the night, unaware of what it was that had risen him from a deep and sound recharge. He looked over his shoulder strut at the Dinobot curled up to him, thinking that Grimlock had probably moved and woken him up but the large mech was still. Grimlock slept, to use the human phrase, like a rock.

Or was it log?

Bee sighed and sat up, looking down the length of his frame. Last week his keen optics had noted the curve forming on his midsection, and his spark had dropped, fearful. It wouldn’t be much longer before he would have to let the humans know why the yellow team leader of this rag-tag team of Autobots (and a Dinobot) was getting fatter and why his hips were widening.

And even if he didn’t want to, there was no way the team would be able to hide a sparkling from Denny and Russell for long.

He remembered from his time spent around the Darbys that it was not normal for all humans regardless of sex to have the ability to produce and bear offspring. All Cybertronians could bear offspring. Every. Single. One.

Approximately only half of humans alive on Earth at any given moment were equipped with the necessary organs to do so.

And he knew for certain that Denny and Russell would not have that trouble.

Then he felt the fluttering again, low in his abdomen. He shook his helm and closed his optics. Yup. It was the sparkling, for sure.

He reopened his optics and gently shook Grimlock awake, knowing that he would want to be awake from this. “Grimlock?” he whispered.

The Dinobot stirred, not waking but instead opening his mouth, drool dripping out onto the berth. Bee held back a disgusted noise and patted the Dinobot over his optics. “Hey. Grimlock.”

“Mmmmmmmm huh?” The second time was the charm, and the Dinobot opened his optics, looking blearily at his team leader. “Huh?”

“Grimlock,” Bumblebee couldn’t help the small grin that crossed his faceplates; he convinced himself that it was mostly due to the doofy expression on his mate’s face that only appeared whenever he was woken too early. “Grimlock, the sparkling. The sparkling’s moving and I can feel it.”

Blue optics blinked at him, confused. Grimlock planted faceplates-first on the surface of the berth and mumbled something unintelligible, but Bumblebee could make out the words “huh” and “what”. He chuckled. “I said the sparkling’s moving. I can feel it.”

He gave Grimlock three seconds to react before he just gave up and fell into recharge. It took two for the Dinobot’s processors to kick up to full speed. Grimlock shoot up in the berth, optics wide and scrambling over to his mate with the biggest grin on his faceplates. “Let me feel!”

Bee smiled and leaned back on his servos, watching the larger mech’s servo curl over the barely-there swell of his midsection. Both mechs sat in utter silence and complete stillness for what seemed a cycle, before the sparkling moved, fluttering and thumping. Grimlock grinned and bounced up and down on the berth. “I felt it! I felt it!”

“Yeah, me too.” Bee reached a servo down and laid it over Grimlock’s larger servo, squeezing it softly.

Grimlock laid down, placing his helm gently on Bumblebee’s midsection. He smiled up at Bee. “This’s incredible.”

Bumblebee wanted to counter that it really wasn’t but he decided to leave it at that. He only sighed after a few moments of Grimlock listening to their sparkling moving about under his abdominal plating. “I’m starting to show my carrying, Grimlock. We’re gonna have to tell the Clays.”

That gave the Dinobot pause. He looked up at Bumblebee with wide blue optics full of apprehension. “Do we have to?”

“How else are we doing to explain my frame changing and the sudden appearance of a sparkling?”

“Yeah.” Grimlock sighed and pushed his faceplates against Bee’s side. “Then we do gotta tell them. But how?”

Bumblebee weighed the question in his processor. He pursed his lipplates and gently stroked the Dinobot’s helm where he lay, curled against his side. “I don’t know. That’s what I’ve been asking myself.”

Both mechs lay on the berth for a few kliks, electromagnetic fields mingling. Grimlock buffeted calmness toward the yellow mech (a strange thing for Bumblebee – normally _he_ was the one trying to keep Grimlock from letting his emotions get the better of him). The Dinobot purred against the Autobot lieutenant’s side, winding his arm around Bee’s middle. “Do we just… come out an’ say it?”

“I really don’t think that’ll be the best course of action. It’ll take them by surprise and…”

“And?”

“This world is amazing, Grimlock. But there are some really… different things about Earth.” Bee touched one of the little horn-like structures that adorned the Dinobot’s helm, prompting the green and black mech to look up at him. “By their standards I shouldn’t be carrying. Half of the human population can carry compared to every one bot on Cybertron. Denny and Russell… I’m not sure how they’re going to take this news.”

“Why?”

“Because the humans we are paired with have preconceived notions of all of us. I’ve noticed that a carrying human is seen as weak and vulnerable by most of the population.” Bee felt his tanks churn at the thought of being considered as such, especially by the two humans that had taken them in when they had first arrived on Earth. “I’m worried that they might think of me in that way. And I don’t want them to.”

Bumblebee felt Grimlock slide up his side, and turned his helm to look directly into the Dinobot’s optics. He felt the larger mech’s lipplates close over his, felt the engine revving against his frame, sending pleasant vibrations through his body that shot right into his pelvic plating.

Grimlock gently nudged Bee’s helm, burying his faceplates in the yellow mech’s neck. “Don’t think it should matter what they think of you. What should matter is that the team thinks you’re strong and a good leader.” Then Bumblebee felt the arm wound around his middle travel further south, and a glossa licked up his neck cables. “And I don’ think you’re weak and vulnerable.”

A servo adorned with sharp-tipped digits stroked the seams of his interfacing panel, making the yellow mech’s intakes hitch with want and _need._ Primus, the Dinobot knew exactly how to work him up.

That, and there was the whole carrying issue. He would have an insatiable appetite for interfacing during it, he’d read.

Not that he was complaining much.

They assumed their usual interfacing positions so Grimlock could do the one thing he loved doing to Bee, which was lapping at his valve and toying with his nodes until the yellow mech was all but riding his faceplates, gasping for breath, panting and begging him for more.

He parted Bee’s legs and put one over each of his wide shoulders, soft glossa lapping at the closed but quickly heating interface panel. Tender servos reached down, gently stroking his helm before closing around his little horns at the same moment that the panel retracted.

The Dinobot wasted no time in pushing his glossa between the wet and warm folds of the yellow mech’s valve, lapping up the lubricants that trickled out and onto his faceplates. He swiped his glossa over the internal nodes, smirking against Bee’s valve as he elicited a louder moan. The servos that held onto his helm began to shake, and he withdrew his glossa, pressing it against the exceptionally sensitive node located at the top of the valve.

The servos stopped shaking, and instead held his horns in a vise-like grip. He felt the smaller mech’s frame tense, heard the breathless pants and the whispers for “more”.

Grimlock happily obliged, flicking and tickling the node with the tip of his glossa. He wrapped his servos around Bumblebee’s thighs, keeping them in place, and then affixed his mouth to the interface array before him, sucking hard.

Bee arched his hips, grinding his valve against the Dinobot’s face, moaning quietly. He lay back, moving his servos away from Grimlock’s helm and placing one over his chassis and the other under his helm. The feeling of the Dinobot’s mouth and glossa on his valve were addicting, and he’d love nothing more than to lay there and have him do it for hours and hours.

Unfortunately the sun was a few hours from rising, and they still needed rest.

Grimlock was back to lapping and purring against his valve, sending pleasant shivers through his frame. The yellow mech sighed and trailed his servo down the length of his frame, feeling slightly put off when his servo noted how his abdominal plates protruded by micrometers, and circled a digit around his anterior node. “Gri-Grimlock,” he gasped as his legs jerked under his own servo’s ministrations, and from the Dinobot’s warm glossa lapping at him, “get on with it.”

The Dinobot pressed his lipplates against the quivering and clenching valve before he hovered over Bee’s frame, retracting his interface panel and slowly breaching the other mech’s interface array with the tip of his spike.

Primus, the way Bee groaned was… he didn’t know how to describe it. But he would gladly frag Bee at his command if it meant he could hear him make that noise. He slowly slipped forward, feeling the calipers loosening in the valve to make room for his spike. Leaning down, he kissed the yellow mech’s lipplates, glossa tracing over the outline of Bee’s mouth.

Bee wrapped his legs around Grimlock’s waist and tilted his hips upward, taking the entirety of the Dinobot’s spike in.

Grimlock placed a servo at Bumblebee’s hip, and the other near the smaller mech’s helm as he began a slow and steady pace of thrusting. The smaller mech moaned into his mouth and wound his arms around his neck, bringing him in further to deepen their kiss. The Dinobot drew back, only leaving in the tip of his spike. He savored the wanton moan and silent plea for more, evidenced by how Bee tightened the grip his legs had around the Dinobot’s waist and moved his arms up, servos gripping the back of his helm this time.

Quickening the pace of his thrusts, Grimlock groaned and panted in the yellow mech’s audio as he slid in and out at rapidly increasing speed, both their frames rocking against each other as they came together.

He loved watching Bee come undone. He knew the signs very well, how the rate of his panting and pleasured gasps increased, how the optics lightened from blue to a near-white, how his mouth slowly opened into an O shape. He could feel the mech slowly arching up and up, saw his helm crane back-

Grimlock was the first to overload. It always took him by surprise; he roared loudly and his thrusts became erratic as transfluids spurt from his spike into his mate’s rippling valve. When he was coming down from his high his vision cleared and he looked down to see the yellow mech overload. Bumblebee’s arms tightened around his helm, holding the Dinobot’s head to his chassis as he yelled out his completion, lubricants mixed with transfluids that hadn’t made it to his gestation chamber leaking out of his valve and staining their thighs.

Looking down at the smaller mech, Grimlock gave a smile as Bumblebee reopened his optics and met his gaze. The yellow mech smiled back and, after a few moments of basking in post-overload bliss he brought Grimlock’s helm to his and kissed the Dinobot. Grimlock purred against Bee, whispering in a husky voice, “Know what I think of you?”

“That I’m a good frag?”

Grimlock shoved his helm into Bumblebee’s neck and kissed the cables there before he retracted his spike, closing his interface array. Clawed digits stroked silver faceplates in a gesture of comfort when the motion made the rest of their combined fluids leak out of the yellow mech’s valve, trickling down his aft and onto the berth. “You’re strong.”

The words struck Bee as funny. He arched an optic ridge at the Dinobot and laughed softly. “You’re a lot stronger than me, Grim.”

“Didn’t mean physically. I meant… what’s that word?” The Dinobot’s faceplates scrunched up in confusion. “Like… inside. You… you carry a lot on you. That’s what I mean.”

Emotionally. That was the word that Grimlock was looking for. Bumblebee pursed his lipplates and sighed. “Emotionally. That’s what you mean. What makes you say that?”

The Dinobot laid on the berth, next to the Autobot lieutenant, and stretched as much as the tiny space would allot him to. He made a satisfied noise and curled up to the yellow bot’s side. “Carrying. You’re a strong bot for carrying this sparklin’ and doin’ what you can to deal with this.” Grimlock had half a processor to ask Bee if he still didn’t want the sparkling – heck he was warming back up to it but what mattered was that the carrier warmed up to the idea. “And ya leading this team, hunting down these Decepticons, dealing with all of us and our problems.” He nudged Bee. “And dealin’ with me. I’m… I’m sorry I sparked ya up.”

The apology seemed so absurdly naive and was so, as the humans called it, out of left field that Bumblebee had to laugh. Grimlock looked miffed until Bee calmed down and looked at him, softened expression on his faceplates.

“You don’t need to apologize. Really.”

The Dinobot smiled brightly, showing off his sharp and uneven dentae. He buried his faceplates in Bee’s shoulder strut and a minute later Bee could feel the green and black mech’s chassis rising up and down in an even pattern, showing that he was deep in recharge.

He raised an arm and stroked the slack faceplates, kissing the Dinobot. His other servo gently stroked the uneven surface of his belly. The motion elicited faint flutters from within, making him smile sadly.

_ He loves you already,  _ he thought in his processor, almost believing that at this point in time that the sparkling could understand him. _I’m sorry that I don’t love you like he does right now. But I’m working on it. I’ll love you. One of these days, I’ll love you._


	6. For Crying Out Loud

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yikes! I'm sorry this took a while to post. I had lost inspiration for the fic due to lack of new _RiD_ material and personal issues, but watching the leaked online episodes brought the inspiration roaring back. I'll do my best to not wait so long between updates in the future.
> 
> A bit of silly fluff and humans being humans ahead ~\o\

Bee woke up from recharge, startled out of it, and looked past the small curve of his middle to find the Dinobot between his legs again, licking at his closed interfacing panel and at the berth below where their fluids had come to mix together during the night. From where he was he could feel the Dinobot purring loudly, the vibrations shooting through his frame.

“Grimlock!”

The Dinobot stopped his licking and purring, and looked up with wide, innocent-looking blue optics.

Both Dinobot and Autobot stared at each other for a moment, Dinobot with a questioning look in his optics and the Autobot startled, before Bee raised a pede and placed it on the snout, gently moving Grimlock away from his pelvic plating. The Dinobot fell to the floor and made a small miffed noise, turning into his root mode but staying in his lying position on the ground.

“Grimlock,” Bumblebee sighed and sat up after a few moments of slight struggle, placing his servo on his middle and rubbing at the plating for a moment. After ensuring he wasn’t going to retch, he shook his helm. “What were you doing?”

“I… don’t know.” The Dinobot looked at him with confused optics. “I woke up and suddenly decided I need to lick you clean.”

The yellow mech wiped his servos on his inner thighs. He still needed a shower in a washrack, alright. “Don’t do that again.”

“I won’t, I promise.”

Bumblebee waved a servo in a somewhat dismissive manner and slowly got off the berth, standing up. His legs ached terribly. He winced and closed his optics, holding out an arm. “Help me to the washrack, now.”

Being the good mate he was, Grimlock got to his pedes and lifted Bumblebee into his arms, smiling and humming contentedly as he carried the smaller, pregnant mech to the one washrack in the salvage yard. Denny had procured a large pile of bricks and metal and gave them to the bots so they could build their own little quarters in the empty corners of the lot. Nearer to Grimlock and Bee’s shared quarters was a makeshift washroom – all it was composed of was three walls, a thin sheet of wobbly metal, and three old, long, and large hoses stuck between the gaps of the walls and roof.

When they reached the washrack Bee grabbed the longer of the hoses. “Can you turn it on?”

“Uh, sure.” Grimlock waddled outside and activated the water flow, which was soothing to the yellow mech. The first thing he did was properly wipe down his thighs, making extra certain there was no interface residue and Dinobot oral fluids on him. He grabbed a cloth from his subspace and dabbed at the scratches in his armor left behind by Grimlock, wiping away the flaky bits of paint.

“You feeling okay?”

“Yeah.” Bee sighed as he wiped the cloth over his abdominal plating, servo twitching at the miniscule curve forming. “Yeah, I’m fine.” He turned around and held the active hose to Grimlock. “You mind joining me?”

A large grin crossed the Dinobot’s faceplates as he worked his way into the small space, grabbing the hose from Bee and using it to wash himself. He started when he felt servos on him, relaxing when he realized it was Bee helping him clean himself off.

Both mechs stood in the washrack for a while, showering off the remnants of last night’s activities and picking out flaky bits of each other’s paint. The silence was comfortable as they were used to each other’s presence (and enjoyed it), the only sound being the water rushing forth from the active hoses.

“Thought about it?”

Bee brought his servo away from the apex of his thighs and washed it off. “Thought about what?”

“How we’re gonna… what you said last night.” Grimlock turned around and pointed to the back of his shoulder, where there were scratches.

Bee grabbed the nearest active hose and poured water over the welts, rubbing his servo along the Dinobot’s shoulder. “Telling Denny and Russell about the new Autobot I’m still manufacturing?”

“Yeah.”

“I haven’t. I don’t know how to tell them and get the best case scenario, which would be that they _don’t_ freak out. I’m afraid of their reaction. Especially their reaction to anything that isn’t… normal to them. Like this is,” Bee replied, gesturing to his abdominal plating. “I don’t know what to do, Grim.”

“…just come out and say it?”

“And hear them freak out?”

“Right. We’ll think of somethin’.”

Bee sighed and handed an extra cleaning cloth to the Dinobot, turning around and sighing as the mech’s servos wiped his door wings. “We’ll have to preface it by reminding them that we’re Cybertronians, not humans.”

“Let ‘em know that this is normal?”

“Exactly.” The yellow mech flicked one of his doorwings when the Dinobot’s digits touched a particularly sensitive spot. “Hopefully reminding them of that will make them less likely to react negatively.”

“Even if they did, what could they do about it?”

“Nothing. But I’d prefer that they’d know and be alright with it. You’re done by the way, you don’t need to keep cleaning the wings.” Bee flicked his doorwing for good measure and smiled as Grimlock wandered out of the washrack and shut off the hoses. “Thank you.”

The Dinobot peeked back in the washrack. His optics were far too adorable for his own good, as the sight near melted Bumblebee’s spark. “For what?”

Bee hung the wet cleaning cloths on the nearest makeshift hooks to dry. “Everything.”

.-.-.

“-and you wouldn’t know _how_ to properly calibrate these, Denny Clay!”

“ _You_ don’t know how to properly calibrate – uh… these!”

Bee rounded the corner into the central meeting area of the scrap yard and saw a now-familiar sight, Fixit and Denny at each other’s throats again. Fixit was waving one of his tools at Denny, who in turn was waving one of his own tools at the Minicon. If they weren’t of different species, Bee would probably have just told the both of them to get a room and get it over with.

“Hi Bee,” came a muffled greeting.

“Hey Russell.” Bee looked down at the smaller of the humans, who had what the humans called a “toothbrush” sticking out of his mouth. “Your dad and Fixit are going at it again, aren’t they?”

Russell grabbed the toothbrush handle, yanked it out of his mouth, and spat a blue-colored liquid onto the ground. “Yep. If the thought didn’t gross me out, I’d tell them to kiss and make up with each other already.”

“You and me both. Which reminds me, I need to tell your dad something but…”

“But?”

“I’m not entirely sure how to go about it.”

Bumblebee had been dead-set on telling the Clays about the impending sparkling _that day, now_ , but the more he thought of their possible reaction the further he wanted to push it off until he was _really_ beginning to show. For now, you couldn’t see anything unless whomever looked at him knew exactly what they were supposed to be looking for.

And no one would know, if he didn’t say anything

Just as those thoughts crossed his processor, he felt the faint flutters of the sparkling moving, almost in a gesture for him to get on with it. He sighed, shifted his weight on his pedes, and cleared his vocalizer. “Fixit, stop fighting with Denny. And Denny, stop fighting with Fixit.”

Minicon and human male glared at each other a moment longer before Fixit made like he was going to poke Denny with his instrument.

“Hi Bee!” Denny shoved Fixit and his little tool away with one hand as he waved with the other. “Sorry if our arguing woke you. At this rate, I already forgot what we were fighting about.”

“No, it didn’t wake me. I-I didn’t even know you were arguing in the first place.”

“Oh! Well, uh, good! At least we’re weren’t heard like… yeah, me and Russell’s mom.”

Bumblebee saw the faraway look come across the older male’s eyes for a brief moment before he shook his head. “Anyway, so, since Fixit hasn’t found any traces of Decepticon signals coming around, I figure you guys are all going for patrol?”

That jogged the yellow mech’s memory. He blinked and nodded, turning to Fixit. “Fixit, who’s scheduled for patrol duties this morning?”

The Minicon stuck his glossa out at Denny Clay’s back and then pulled up a list of who was scheduled to go on patrols on what days, and in what areas. “It looks like you and Strongarm have this morning’s shift, and you both will be patrolling the areas west of Crown City.”

Now was better than later. Bumblebee nodded, pursued his lipplates, and at the urging of the sparkling (which came in the form of more soft flutters in his abdomen), said “Put Sideswipe with Strongarm for patrol; I won’t be going. Not today. I need to talk to Denny and to Russell.”

In front of him and out of the corner of his optics, he saw the two humans tense up and stand at attention. Fixit looked at him with his large blue optics and blinked them. “Y-you’re going to sell – bell – _tell_ them about…” The Minicon didn’t finish his statement, but instead waved one of his servos in the general direction of the lieutenant’s midsection.

“I have to.”

“Tell us what?”

He knew he had to tell them. But what he did not know was how to tell them, much less how to even begin. The yellow mech cleared his vocalizer. “I have to inform you both that we will be getting a new member of our team fairly soon.”

“Is there a new Autobot on the way? How long until they arrive?”

“And what’s their name?” Russell looked excited at the prospect of having someone new join the team. Bumblebee knew he was expecting a fully grown Autobot with a designation, a backstory, already a full autonomous being. Not… what was really coming.

The lieutenant’s shoulder struts sagged a moment, and he shook his helm. “I don’t know.”

“They didn’t give you their name when they called?”

“Not… exactly.”

Denny arched an eyebrow at the leader of the team he had taken into his scrapyard. “Well, if you don’t know their name, do you know when they’ll be arriving?”

“Uhmmm sometime in the next three or four Earth months.”

“That’s weird, that they would alert you this far in advance,” Russell’s voice reached his audio receptors. “Do they have something else to do before they come?”

_Yeah, they need to finish forming their whole frame._

The sparkling fluttered in his belly. He resisted the urge to stroke his abdominal plating as a gesture of comfort to the little one. “They have a lot left to do.” Now was better than later, he told himself. “However, they won’t be coming from Cybertron. It’s not a fully grown bot, as you seem to think.”

He noted the confused looks on the two humans’ faces. Russell spoke before his dad had a chance to: “If it’s not a fully grown bot… what… what does that mean?”

“Aren’t you guys made already fully grown?” Denny asked, raising his hands in the arm with the palms facing skywards. “Unless you guys go through childhood and puberty like humans d-”

“Bee!”

The yellow mech turned around and saw the other three members of his team heading his way, with Grimlock in his Dinobot mode and carrying a familiar datapad in his mouth.

Sideswipe did not look happy at being roused from his recharge earlier than he had expected. “What gives? Why are you sticking me on patrol with Strongarm, of all bots?”

Both Bumblebee and Strongarm rounded on the red mech, Bee’s optics flaring and Strongarm putting her fists to her hips, cocking them. Bee spoke: “I am not able to go on patrols at this moment. Fixit does not go on patrols unless accompanied by two other bots and Grimlock does not go on patrols, period, so at the moment you and Strongarm will have to put aside whatever tension of whatever nature it is that you both have and work together. Remember, trust exercises?”

“Yeah, that didn’t go too well,” Sideswipe said, narrowing his optics at Bee but wisely taking a step back. “Why do you need Fixit here anyhow?”

“I need him here to help me explain this issue to Denny and to Russell.”

“What issue?”

Not eager to spill it just yet, Bee widened his optics and stared the red mech down. “ _That_ issue.”

“Oh, you mean the _sparkling_?”

The entire scrapyard went so still that if a pin had dropped on the other end, it would break the tense silence that came after Sideswipe’s blunder. Bumblebee was on the verge of killing the delinquent mech (the only time he was ever on the verge of doing so), but before he could bring his momentary fantasy to reality Grimlock quickly came between them both. The Dinobot shoved his face in Bee’s chassis and purred.

Bee gently and absentmindedly patted the Dinobot’s faceplates as he glared at Sideswipe. From behind him he heard both Denny and Russell ask, “What’s a sparkling?”

Whatever it was that Bee had meant to tell the humans disappeared from his processor. He slumped over the Dinobot’s snout and sighed heavily.”

“Lieutenant?”

He looked at Strongarm, with her servos still on her hips. She tilted her helm at him, gentle expression on her faceplates and in her optics. “Would you like me to tell the humans?”

“I-I think I’m better prepared to help explain, S-S-Strongarm.”

“No, both of you.” Bumblebee straightened his posture. Grimlock lifted his helm and lightly nudged Bee in his midsection. “I need to come out and say it myself. To answer your question, Denny and Russell, a sparkling is what Cybertronians refer to their young as. So, when I mentioned that we will be getting a new member on our team, I am referring to a sparkling.”

“Cybertronian young?”

Russell piped up. “Does that mean it’s like a baby?”

“I… er… yes. It’s the equivalent of a human baby, though not as helpless for so long, and not so tiny.”

“So does that mean…” The younger male trailed off and in unison, both he and his dad looked at the only femme on the team.

Strongarm had seen enough Earth media to know what they were thinking. She crossed her arms over her chassis. “I am not a human female. No, I am not the one that is going to spark.”

“Then who-”

“Oh for crying out loud!” Sideswipe, still in a terrible mood, threw his servos up in the air and gestured at the lieutenant and the Dinobot next to him, snout shoved in his middle. “These two goofed up and didn’t cover it, so now we’re getting a sparkling aboard.”

“Wait, but who’s the one that’s-”

“Going to carry the sparkling? That would be me, actually,” Bee said, cutting Denny off.

Both males stared wide eyed at the yellow mech. Russell blinked. “You?”

“Yes. I am the one that will be having the sparkling.”

“How?”

“If I may butt – jut – _cut_ in lieutenant, I can take over from here and explain.”

“Sure thing, Fixit. But the truth of the matter is, both of you,” Bee looked down at Russell and Denny, bringing up a servo to rub at his helm, “we are Cybertronians and not humans. Unlike your species where only half of its members at any given time are able to carry young, virtually all Cybertronians are able to do so.”

After stating his piece, Bumblebee patted Grimlock’s snout and turned around, heading out of the scrapyard and into the nearby forest – it had become his place of solitude as of late.

::Bee, d’you want me to-::

::Not right now, Grim. I need some time alone::

He heard the Dinobot make a sad noise, followed by an ::Okie-dokie::

A moment later he heard Sideswipe yell. “Hey, what was _that_ for?!”

.-.-.

There were some hunters a few miles away, but not close enough to hear him should he move nor to see him. He kept his scanners on, just as a precaution. When they got two miles too close, he would take on his vehicular mode and drive back to the scrapyard. Well, if he were still able to do so.

He wanted to try it out, but decided against it. He was too comfortable sitting against the tree, servos joined and digits intertwined over his middle.

The sun was high in the sky, meaning it had been a few hours since he had left the scrapyard. He was grateful for the cover of the trees – Cybertron was hardly ever this hot. He hated how hot his armor would get after spending too much time outside on a sunny day. Not even his own internal fans were able to cool him down completely.

A pair of earth animals he recognized as deer trotted close to him, then stopped, staring at him with their large brown eyes. He watched them out of the corner of his optics, going still, wondering if they might come toward him.

“Bee?”

The deer ran away at the sound of twigs snapping underfoot. Bee sighed and looked down at his side, at the scruffy-haired male next to him. “I hope Fixit didn’t take too long explaining everything.”

“No but he _did_ give us a rather informative… lecture.” Denny closed his eyes and shook his head. “Now there was some interesting stuff but also… stuff we didn’t need to know. Well, that Russell didn’t need to know.”

“I’m sorry. I should have told him what to say and what not to say.”

“Eh it’s fine,” Denny planted himself on the ground next to the yellow mech and waved a hand dismissively. “Just feel bad that Russell and I immediately jumped to that conclusion about Strongarm. She was still glaring at me when I wandered out of the scrapyard.”

“I remember she was pretty vocal to me a few times, back when she was first assigned to patrol the streets of Cybertron with me, about how she did not want to bear her own sparklings. Her carrier nearly died while in the emergence cycle with her. Oh,” Bee’s wings drooped, “Fixit did tell you what carrier and emergence mean, right?”

“Uhhhh carrier’s like a human mom, right?”

“Right.”

“Emergence…”

“Childbirth.”

“Right. Should have guessed from the word “emergence” and all.”

“Yeah, the term speaks for itself. So given that you and Russell have now been through an abridged lesson on Cybertronian reproduction and life cycles, am I safe to say that you both are not completely traumatized by it?”

Denny waved a hand and scoffed. “I’ve seen weirder, Bee. Russell might be a little confused about it but hey, he’s young and he’ll understand more when he’s older.”

“I’m… happy you haven’t reacted negatively.” Bee’s shoulders drooped and he tilted his helm at the human. “I thought you’d react a lot worse.”

“Nah. Like I said, seen weirder. There’s worse things out there in the universe than a giant talking robot we think of as a guy having a kid. So,” Denny placed his chin in one of his hands and stared up at the Autobot. “You and Grimlock, huh? I shoulda seen it coming, with the way he looks at you and the way you are with him and all.”

Bee couldn’t help but smile and laugh in relief. “Yeah. Me and Grim.”


	7. In the Woods

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Again, apologies for the long wait between chapters. I'm doing my best to update this story as often as possible, but unfortunately life gets in the way. 
> 
> Fluff and cuteness ahead~

“Grim?”

_He was scared._

_The wardens had him backed into a corner, and even with his impressive, incredible amount of physical strength he was no match against these many mechs and femmes, all who had weapons that could easily take down a dozen bots of his size before they ran out of juice._

_Grimlock managed to tear his terrified gaze away from the wardens before him to look to his side, but then he realized that there would be no one there to meet his optics. His team wasn’t here to back him up and fight back with him like they had been during the war. Snarl, Swoop, Slug, and Sludge, all of them gone._

_He roared and attacked the nearest warden, snapping their weapon in half and in half a processor to do the same with their frame but he stopped himself, and a moment later he was down on the ground, a foreign energy charge crackling through his frame, making him howl in pain. Primus, it hurt. Everything hurt._

_“Take him onto the ship,” he heard one of them order another. “Process him and prepare a stasis cell.”_

“Grimlock!”

The Dinobot started and blinked his optics, shaking off the reverie he had gone into without warning. He closed his optics, rubbed the back of his servo across them, and reopened them to see a familiar yellow mech standing in front of him. The sudden closeness made him back up a bit on the berth, but then Bumblebee slowly reached out for him with a servo and placed it on his shoulder strut at the same time he mingled his electromagnetic field with his. Grimlock immediately felt a sense of calm.

“Are you okay?”

“I’m fine, Bee. I just… it’s nothin’. How are you?”

Bumblebee sighed and rubbed his backstrut with his other servo. “Well, my back’s hurting ‘cause this one,” he glared down at the gentle swell of his belly, “decided that they wanted to take after you where size is concerned.”

Grimlock’s spark fluttered at the thought of a miniature him, and he drew Bee into his embrace. He placed a servo on the swell of the other mech’s midsection and purred, swearing he could feel the sparkling purring back at him.

“Is the sparkling okay?”

“Yep.” Bee placed one of his servos over Grimlock’s far larger one, lipplates twisting up into a smile as he felt the sparkling fluttering within. “Fixit says that everything looks fine for now. I’m still worried, given that he’s not exactly a certified medic. But, he’s the best we have for the time being.”

Bee briefly thought back to a medic he knew. He hadn’t heard much of Ratchet even before he had come back to Earth – he wondered where the medic was and how he was doing. And how he would take to the news that the youngest of Team Prime was now the leader of Team Bee, and carrying a sparkling of his own. He would likely be in denial for some time, as would everyone else on the old team. They would refuse to see him as anything more than the youngest bot that had ever existed.

And they would probably tell his current team about the time he had gotten his T-cog ripped out. That wouldn’t be a fun thing to relive. And it would probably make the Dinobot a lot more protective of him than he already was.

Grimlock’s engine rumbling brought him back, and Bee gently patted the Dinobot’s faceplates. “C’mon. I need to be up and moving around to keep the sparkling healthy, and myself occupied. Can’t exactly go on patrols anymore.”

The sparkling fluttered.

The Dinobot huffed. “The scrapyard’s kinda dull by now, Bee. We’ve seen every inch of it. Bored.”

“Well,” Bee crossed his arms over his chassis and narrowed his optics at the other mech, “boring as it may be I need to keep myself occupied, and walking’s a good way to do that. Unless you have any other suggestions?”

Grimlock brightened, and if he were in his Dinobot mode he would have been wagging his thick tail. He looked at Bee with his large, pleading blue optics, and asked, “Can we go in the woods?”

The yellow mech blinked at the green-and-black mech. How had he never thought about that? He nodded. “If it gets you to come with me and not whine that it’s boring, we’ll go into the woods.”

Getting to his pedes a moment later, Grimlock grabbed one of Bee’s arms, gently tugging him out of the room and into the open air. Bee put in the code to open the gates without setting off the alarm, and walked toward the woods on the other side of the street after making sure there weren’t any humans within an immediate radius.

The woods were airy and shady, the noon sun directly overhead and hitting the cover of the trees. A soft breeze swept by them.

On any other day Grimlock would have taken off running in his Dinobot mode, laughing as Bee turned into his car mode and chased after him. After a game of “chase the Dinobot” (which Grimlock always let the yellow mech win at) they would tackle each other and, if they were feeling amorous, sneak away to a secluded area.

With Bumblebee’s current condition, however, “chase the Dinobot” was not an option at the time. Grimlock eagerly awaited the day that they could play it again. He missed it, how Bee laughed out loud as he chased him down, missed being pinned down by the yellow mech or pinning the other mech down and ravishing him with kisses all over his pretty silver faceplates.

“You weren’t feeling well over there, weren’t you?”

The sound of Bee’s voice broke through his memories again. He turned and blinked his optics at the other, smaller mech. “Hmm?”

“Back there at the scrapyard. You zoned out.”

Grimlock looked embarrassed. He rolled his shoulder struts and shifted his weight from one pede to the other, glancing down at the ground. “Yeah. I’m fine though. Don’t worry ‘bout me, Bee. Just worry ‘bout yourself and the sparklin’.”

“I am worried about the sparkling, myself, and also you. You’re my mate and the sire of our sparkling.” Bee touched the Dinobot’s snout, patting it gently and smiling at the soft contented purrs that Grimlock emitted. The Dinobot nuzzled his mate’s faceplates; Bee sighed. “I want to be sure you’re up to the task of raising this sparkling, and if you’re not feeling well I want to know what’s going on, so I can help you.”

He appreciated the yellow mech’s concern over his well-being, but Grimlock drew back and looked at the ground. “It’s nothin’, Bee.”

Bee wanted to continue pressing the issue, but he decided that it was likely not the time. Grimlock would have to come to him of his own accord, on his own time. He breathed a sigh. “If you say so. But know I’m here for you.”

Both mechs continued walking through the woods, a heavy silence between them.

Grimlock couldn’t stay quiet for much longer. He had been keeping this to himself for a while and he needed to let it out. Who better to tell than the one mech he trusted the most?

“I’ve been thinking a lot about the time I was captured and put in stasis aboard the ship.”

Bee slowed down his pace and buffeted his electromagnetic field against the Dinobot’s. Grimlock slowed down his pace as well, continuing, “I don’t know why. It just comes and I blank out.”

A comforting servo reached out and touched his arm. Bee’s voice reached his audio receptors: “When did you start having these flashbacks?”

“Flashbacks?”

“Flashback. It’s an Earth term referring to when someone has a memory from their past surface in their processor.”

“Oh. Uhh…” A pensive look crossed the Dinobot’s faceplates as he struggled to remember exactly when his past began coming back to haunt him further. He felt the terror he had felt then.

After a silence, the yellow mech spoke. “You’ve been having them a lot lately.” Bee pursed his lipplates and absent-mindedly rubbed the swell of his midsection. “I’m worried about you.”

Grimlock had nothing to say to that. He merely looked down at the ground again, answering the previous question. “Started havin’ them when you found out you’re sparked. Had never thought of them before, ‘cause I put that out of my processor.”

Bumblebee turned the information over in his mind while he looked at Grimlock and studied the slightly distraught expression on the larger mech’s faceplates. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

“I didn’ want to worry you. You were already worried about how we were gonna keep the sparkling and raise it.”

“Yeah but-”

“I wanted to tell you but then that thing happened.”

“What thing?”

Grimlock gave him the most deadpan look that Bumblebee had ever seen on the Dinobot’s faceplates. “You wanted to terminate the sparklin’.”

Something that felt a lot like guilt settled on Bumblebee’s spark. He sighed and moved his servo from his midsection, putting it on the small of his back where his spinal strut met his hips.

“After that happened I thought I shouldn’t… tell you about them.”

“Do you know why you’ve been having them, Grim?”

The Dinobot gave a shrug of his wide shoulders. “I think it’s ‘cause… ‘cause I’m scared of being taken away from you and the sparklin’. Scary enough when it was just me that got captured. It’s more scary to think about getting caught again when I gotta protect you both and I don’t wanna lose you.” He quickly reached out and pulled Bee into an embrace, mindful of the sparkling between them.

Bumblebee buried his faceplates in Grimlock’s chassis, trying to wrap his arms around the Dinobot as best as he could but finding that the sparkling was impeding his ability to do so, with the protrusion in his middle. “Grim, you’re not gonna get caught again.”

“How do you know?”

“I placed you on probation. And,” Bee drew back and looked up into the Dinobot’s optics, smiling at him, “if by some chance the big bots on Cybertron want to come for you, they’re going to have to go through me to get to you.”

He thought of Bee standing in front of him, shielding him from some unknown enemy. Grimlock towered over the yellow mech, so the thought was both humorous and spark-warming. The Dinobot cupped the carrying bot’s faceplates and nuzzled his face against his. “Just, don’t put the sparklin’ in the way, alright?”

Bee laughed and kissed the Dinobot. “I wouldn’t think of it.” He patted Grimlock’s face once and made a “come on” gesture with his helm. “Let’s keep walking. I’m nowhere near tired.”

The lieutenant and the Dinobot continued their trek through the woods in a more comfortable silence than they had entered it in, walking closer together, their servos brushing against each other’s and digits touching.

Bee sighed heavily and closed his optics, raising his helm slightly skyward and basking in the sunlight that filtered through the gaps between the leaves in the cover of the forest. He felt more at peace here, walking in the open so to speak, instead of being cooped up in the confines of the scrapyard. Not that he would admit it, but he had been getting fairly bored of the walks around the scrapyard as well.

He felt glad that he had gotten Grimlock to come along.

“Bee.”

Grimlock was a few paces ahead, standing in a beam of sunlight, when he opened his optics. The Dinobot’s back was to him as he stared ahead at a clearing not covered by branches and leaves. Clearing his vocalizer, Bee whispered back at the other mech, “What are you doing?”

“Shh.” Grimlock looked back and waved him forward. “Come and look.”

He did so, keeping his pedes and his pace quiet as he came to stand next to the green and black mech.

There was yet another small pond in the clearing (Bee was beginning to wonder why there was such an abundance of tiny water bodies in this forest) and right next to it was a pair of deer, a male and a female of the species if he remembered the trademarks correctly. The female deer had a swollen midsection and a docile demeanor, ears pulled back as she leaned down to the water.

The male of the species had antlers that reminded him vaguely of Thunderhoof, and dark eyes that studied him and Grimlock closely. He was majestic, something that Bumblebee could safely say Thunderhoof was not.

Suddenly, he thought of the male deer speaking in Thunderhoof’s voice. He almost laughed aloud.

“What are they?”

“They’re deer, Grimlock. They’re harmless.”

Lipplates pulled back over Grimlock’s dentae in a grimace. “That one makes me think of that one Decepticon.”

“Thunderhoof. But these are harmless. And they’re definitely not Decepticons,” Bee said, rubbing a servo up and down the Dinobot’s arm.

Now the female deer had stopped drinking from the pond, and she and the male were both staring intently at them with large, very focused brown eyes.

“Can I chase them?”

“Well-” suddenly what Grimlock had really said registered in the lieutenant’s processor. Bee widened his optics and quickly changed his wording, “No Grim, _wait_ , you’re gonna-”

Too late. Grimlock had already changed into his root mode and was charging for them, thick tail wagging as his entire body hurled forward in pursuit. The deer ran off, disappearing through the trees with Grimlock laughing right behind them.

Bee sighed and placed a servo over his optics. Primus help him if his sparkling turned out like their sire.

Though the thought of a miniature Dinobot chasing after Earth wildlife alongside Grimlock warmed his spark. Not that he would admit to it.

.-.-.

When Grimlock came back after milling around in his dino mode, briefly chasing after other animals (that felt good to get out of his system) he realized he had lost track of time. He stopped at the other side of the water and saw Bee huddled in a cluster of trees, leaning against the trunk of one, with his optics closed in recharge.

Gently making his way over to the other mech, Grimlock’s optics fell to the lone servo that Bee had placed over his midsection. The Dinobot poked his helm through the trees shielding Bumblebee from a very casual glance and lightly placed his helm on the swell of the other mech’s belly.

The sparkling moved. At least he was certain he felt it.

Bumblebee stirred and stretched, but didn’t wake. Grimlock changed back into his bipedal mode and picked the yellow mech up in his arms, tucking his helm close to his spark.

“C’mon.” Grimlock kissed the top of his mate’s helm. “Let’s get you back to the scrapyard.”


	8. Anything You Miss

“I miss dancing.”

Grimlock awoke and turned his helm toward Bee, who was wide awake and staring at the ceiling. The Dinobot quickly accessed the internet and noted what it was.

“You liked dancin’?”

Bee nodded and sighed heavily, as if it were taking all his reserves of strength to do so. It was possible that it was, Grimlock though vaguely as he watched Bee’s servo stroke the very heavy swell of his belly.

One used to have to place their servo on Bee’s midsection (and wither internally when the yellow mech shot them a vicious look) to feel the sparkling move. The carrying cycle had progressed to the point where you could see the sparkling move if you looked hard enough. Grimlock placed his servo over Bumblebee’s and purred softly.

“Yeah, I used to dance a lot,” Bee said. “When I was a lot younger, back here on earth. I’d try dancing but I think I’d fall and hurt the sparkling.”

“What kind of dancing did you do?”

“I don’t know. I would throw my whole frame into it, listen to upbeat music, toss myself around the floor.”

“Yeah that’s not great for the sparklin’ right now.” Grimlock thought of Bee in his current state trying to do those types of moves and he immediately winced for the sake of both Bee and the sparkling.

“Mhmm.” Bee turned his helm and looked at the Dinobot and those large blue optics staring at him out of adorable faceplates, a small smile crossing his faceplates. “There anything you miss?”

“From Cybertron, or…?”

“Cybertron. Anywhere you’ve been.”

It didn’t take Grimlock very long to answer. Faces long gone and names that hung around in his memory banks resurfaced to the forefront of his processor. Briefly he wondered what they would think of him now.

“My team. Swoop, Snarl, Sludge, and Slug. I miss ‘em a lot, Bee.”

Bumblebee blinked. A gentle servo caressed his faceplates, a silent signal for him to continue speaking. Grimlock closed his optics and leaned into the touch. “I miss all the trouble we got into together, and all the trouble we got out of. We had each other’s backs. Miss ‘em so much. Not a solar cycle goes by that I don’t think of ‘em. Also wonder what they’d think of you and the sparklin’.”

Somewhere in the middle of the Great War, when Bee was still so young, almost a child soldier in Earth terms, the legendary Dinobots had gone missing. It wasn’t until many stellar cycles after the war that Bee was shocked to learn that only the leader of the legendary group had survived, albeit with much of his memory from the war missing. He had also heard of Grimlock’s personality before the war, in irritated and tired mutters from Optimus’s vocalizer.

“What happened to them? I remember when we first saw you emerge from your pod we thought we might have all of the Dinobots on our team.”

“We were captured. Watched them all go offline before me. I almost did but I fought my way free and killed a mech. Don’t think they note it but that’s why I was aboard that ship in stasis.”

Bee thought back to what he had learned about Grimlock. The only thing that was on the Dinobot’s record was massive property damage. There was no note about a loss of life.

“I’m sorry. They sound like they were great to have around.”

“Yeah. They were. Bonded together. All of us came from broken backgrounds an’ found comfort in each other.”

Bumblebee wove his electromagnetic field with Grimlock’s and his smile faded when he felt the Dinobot’s distress. He leaned forward as much as he could without straining himself and kissed the Dinobot on his faceplates. When he drew back he saw a small bead of optical fluid on the verge of escaping Grimlock’s optic. He raised his servo again and wiped it away.

Grimlock smiled wanly at him and closed his optics again. “I think they woulda loved ya, Bee. ‘nd they’d be all over our sparklin’.”

“I think I would have liked them too, Grim. Strongarm, however…”

Both mechs stared at each other, imagining Strongarm trying to interact with a group of Dinobots, and Grimlock nearly fell off the berth in a fit of laughter.

“Alright, we should get back to recharge.” Bee laid on his back again, servos coming to rest on the swell of midsection. Moments later he had powered down.

Grimlock stared at the yellow mech for a little while longer, then kissed his lipplates before returning to recharge.

.-.-.

Bumblebee watched Sideswipe, Strongarm, and Grimlock’s backs disappear into the woods. Fixit had noticed some suspicious activity that could have been Steeljaw and his gang down by the waterdocks, and those three were the only ones able to venture out of the scrapyard.

Placing his servo over the almost obscene swell of his midsection, the yellow mech sighed and turned back to face the scrapyard. It seemed empty, though he knew that Russell and Fixit were milling about. Denny had gone off earlier in the day to negotiate payment for something that he said was a ferris wheel.

The sparkling kicked at his servo. The force behind the kick made him wince.

“You definitely take after Grim,” he said to the sparkling, smiling despite himself. There was no way the sparkling would know what he was talking about, but with Grimlock away he at least wanted to make some small talk with the bitlet.

He felt faint emotions that weren’t his in his spark. The sparkling was curious and happy.

“Heh. You’re going to be a servoful. I can tell already. Also, I wish you would be done with it and come out. My internals can’t take much more kicking.”

The sparkling pulsed waves of happiness, or at least what he felt was happiness, back at him.

Images of Grimlock playing with a miniature-Grimlock came to his processor. He transferred the thoughts to the bitlet, and the sparkling’s happiness only increased.

“Primus help me with you and your sire.”

Bee remembered there was another datapad left to read on the berth in his and Grimlock’s little room. He ventured back into the room and grabbed it, turning it on. Cybertronian text flashed at him, reminding him that he had left off on a chapter about Cybertronian birthing techniques.

He had done his best to put that little fact out of his processor, but with the end of his carrying cycle drawing closer and closer (solar cycles away, Fixit had presumed at the checkup the previous week) he couldn’t avoid thinking about it for much longer.

“Um, Bumblebee?”

The yellow armored mech turned around to see Russell Clay standing in the entrance to the room. The young human looked a little taken aback when he’d turned around, and Bee saw how Russell averted looking directly at him. “Fixit said he has something to give to you, and he sent me to bring you over.”

“Is it another datapad?”

“I think so.”

Bee looked at the datapad in his servos, frowned slightly, and then half-tossed it onto the berth again. He could read it later.

On the way to Fixit’s console, Bee noted how Russell walked stiffly, how the human kept his eyes to the ground and had his hands shoved in his pants pockets. It was the way that the young human walked in a stiff manner that was strange, and how Russell avoided looking at him.

“Hey, Russell?”

He could tell that Russell was using up most of his energy to not look directly at him. “Yeah?”

“Are you alright?”

“Yeah, I suppose.” The hands were jammed further into the pockets, and Russell jerked his head in the direction of the group’s Minicon, who was happily humming to himself and watching the spark signatures of Sideswipe, Strongarm, and Grimlock on a holoscreen. “Fixit’s up there. And I think I forgot to do some homework so I’ll… see you guys around.”

Bee watched the boy scamper off into the small camper that his father had customized for him and frowned. Didn’t Russell say recently that he was on what the humans called “summer vacation”? If he recalled correctly, humans did not get assignments to take home during that period.

He decided not to pursue the issue further.

“How’s everyone holding up, Fixit?” he asked, peeking around and keeping an especially sharp optic on the little dot that had Grimlock’s designation next to it.

“Oh, they’re all great!” The Minicon gestured to the screen before him, smiling brightly. “They’re all alive so that doubts – abouts – _counts_ as great!”

“Hah, true. Nothing better you can ask for, ‘cept for a couple of ‘con captures. So, Russell said you had something for me?”

“Huh? Oh! I did say that, yes.” The Minicon reached under the console and grabbed a datapad,  
handing it over to Bee. “I found some very pertinent information that I thought you could read and use.”

The yellow mech activated the datapad, optics skimming briefly over the text. “What information is this about?”

“Oh, it’s nothing really, just about the noted behaviors and manners of Dinobots like G-G-Grimlock.”

Bee chuckled and looked back down at the Cybertronian text on the datapad, actually reading it this time. “It’s nothing, you say. But, it’s a lot to me. Thanks. I didn’t even know you had something like this stored there in the console.”

“Hey, neither did I!” The Minicon grinned brightly. “But, I thought you might be able to use it and learn to accept – _expect_ what the sparkling could wind up being like.”

Bee placed his servo on the small of his back and held the datapad in another servo, reading it as he walked through the aisles of junky objects that Denny had an affinity for.

So from what the datapad was telling him, Grimlock was just like any other protective mate, but with mecha-animalistic instincts mixed into the pot. It was nothing new.

Wait, was that…

Oh, Pit no.

If Grimlock tried _that_ on him or the sparkling, he had another thing coming to him.

Bumblebee was almost done reading through the rest of the datapad, which relayed fairly tame information after that one little shocking part pertaining observed Dinobot behaviors regarding reproduction, when he heard the sounds of the three more mobile and agile members of Team Bee returning to the scrapyard. He ventured back to Fixit’s console area, where he stopped and stared at the three bots sopping wet and with empty-servos.

“Grimlock saw something shiny in the water, thought it might be a water-borne Decepticon, and chased after it,” Strongarm said when she saw her team leader’s questioning gaze on them all. “Sideswipe and I dove in after him and it wasn’t until we hit the water that we realized that we’d both made a mistake.”

Sideswipe made a noise of disgust as he bent his arm over and around his backplates, removing a long and thin strand of seaweed from between plates of armor. “It turned out to be a pack of dolphins.”

“The proper term is “pod”, Sideswipe. It was a pod of dolphins.”

“Whatever.”

“Say it.”

“No! Of course _you_ would get hung up on Earth grammar.”

Grimlock’s thick tail wagged once in greeting and he took on his root mode, wandering over to Bumblebee and wrapping his arms around him. Bee bristled at the feeling of wet armor against his dry armor. And it was salt water at that.

“How’re you and the sparklin’?”

Bee patted Grimlock’s faceplates and gently nuzzled the Dinobot’s face with his own. “We’re fine, but we’re better now that you’re back.”

As if to drive their carrier’s point home, the sparkling fluttered and kicked. Grimlock felt it and made a noise of delight that Bee had no idea could come from a Dinobot’s vocalizer. The green and black mech knelt down and placed his faceplates right next to his mate’s distended midsection and rubbed his face over it, laughing when the sparkling kicked again.

“Oh, and Grim?”

The Dinobot looked up and immediately had a datapad thrust at him, with a particular section highlighted. He looked at the datapad a brief moment, then back at Bee with a confused expression.

“If you do any of _that_ during my emergence cycle, I will stick you back in a stasis pod and not feel guilty about it.”

“Wha-”

“Read it.” Bee walked off, hips sauntering as best as they could with his current state, doorwings stiffened in the air.

Grimlock stared down at the highlighted text.

_Carrying Cybertronians with Dinobot or otherwise specified mecha-animalistic coding will create their own nest of sanctuary a decacycle before the emergence process is due to begin._

_During the process of emergence, the sire will help the carrier in a variety of ways, but the most common manner that has been noted is stimulating emergence via the valve with glossa or digits. When the sparklings have been born, the sire will tear the umbilical line with their own dentae and if both creators have mecha-animalistic coding they will lick the sparkling clean of the fluids._

.-.-.

He wanted to make a nest.

Bee shook the thought from his processor. He didn’t have Dinobot coding in his genetic code – there was no reason for the thought to have entered his processor, other than having read that it was what Dinobots and other mecha-animals did.

For a brief moment he was happy that, if either of them had to get sparked, it was him. He didn’t think he could handle a carrying Grimlock nesting and growling aggressively at anyone that got too close.

There was also the issue that they had multiple sparklings at once. He was only carrying one. He didn’t want to imagine Grimlock with twins or triplets. The image was cute, but in image only.

His vents kicked on to cool his frame down. It had become an unfortunate daily occurrence as of late. Normally if a Cybertronian had their vents activate in public, that was a sign that they had just been interfacing or that they were extremely aroused by something and didn’t have the willpower to quash said arousal.

The first time it had happened, the rest of his team and Grimlock had jumped and stared at each other questioningly, searching for the source of the noise, before their optics all settled on him. He’d groused angrily at them and stormed away, the embarrassment making his vents kick to a full blast so loud that Denny and Russell had come out of their respective campers to ask who in blazes was revving their engine that loudly on a Tuesday morning.

“Bee?”

A clawed servo slowly wrapped itself around his chassis and pulled him backwards, and Bee found himself in the strong and protective embrace of his mate. He sighed happily and did his best to turn and bury his faceplates in Grimlock’s chassis. Unfortunately the sparkling was in the way. Bee had to settle for turning partway in the Dinobot’s arms and laying his helm on the broad chassis. “Hmm?”

“Do you wanna come on a walk with me?”

There was still daylight out, and Bee was beginning to feel somewhat restless. He would actually welcome that walk. He nodded and wordlessly headed for the forest beyond. “Did you clean yourself off?”

“Yeah.”

“Good. Let’s go. If you chase after any of Earth’s wildlife again I’m leaving you and coming back to the scrapyard.”

.-.-.

Grimlock bounded up and down every few steps, getting ahead of Bee then stopping to make sure that the yellow mech was still behind him. When Bee would catch up, the Dinobot would take off a few steps ahead, jumping and bounding excitedly. It was cute, but Bee had to ask himself what was making Grimlock do exactly that.

He had told Grimlock to not chase after the wildlife again. This was probably the Dinobot’s way of trying to expend his boundless amounts of energy and still stay within Bumblebee’s orders.

Bumblebee was extra glad for the shade that the trees provided. His vents were still on, trying to cool his frame, but the roar of the fans weren’t so loud that they could be confused with an engine revving.

“Grim, you’re going to hurt yourself if you keep doing that.”

“Nah Bee, I’m just excited.”

“Don’t get so excited that you take off running and chase something away again. What are you excited about?”

“This!” Grimlock took his mate’s servo and gently tugged him further through the thick trees, and suddenly Bee found himself in a large clearing surrounded on all sides by trees. He stared the clear, dusky sky above and moved his servo away from the Dinobot’s grip.

“Uh… Grim?”

“Can’t let you miss dancin’.”

“Grim, I can’t exactly dance like this.” Bee gestured to his distended belly.

“No, but there are other ways. Like… I think it’s called slow-dancin’.”

Something clicked loudly, and Bee had to laugh when he heard the low strains of a human chorus singing. “You didn’t.”

“I did.” Grimlock grinned sheepishly, and increased the volume of the little radio mechanisms he had had hooked up to his frame. Russell had called it an “iPod” and a “speaker”.

“Grim, I don’t know how to dance to this type of music!” Bee said loudly as the music increased in volume and the words became louder and clearer. “I’m more of a loud and fast tempo kind of mech!”

“I don’t know how to dance either Bee!” Grimlock smiled at him and held out a servo. “So I guess we’ll have to learn together!”

Bee furrowed his optic ridges then decided to relent. He reached a servo out and placed it in Grimlock’s servo.

 _‘cause I stand beside you through the years_  
_you’ll only cry those happy tears_  
_and though I make mistakes_

 _“I’ll never break your spark,”_ Grimlock sang along softly in that voice of his, leaning forward and placing his forehelm against Bumblebee’s. _“And I swear by the moon”_

Bee accessed the internet and quickly searched for slow dancing, finding a video with some exquisite footwork by both humans involved. He furrowed his optic ridges and transferred the link to the video to Grimlock.

Within moments they were attempting to take the same steps, swaying softly to the left then to the right while making sure they avoided stepping on each other’s pedes.

 _“-and the stars in the sky, I’ll be there,”_ the Dinobot whispered to Bee, smiling when the yellow mech smiled and leaned up to kiss him. _“I swear like the shadow that’s by your side, I’ll be there.”_

Grimlock was slightly startled in a good way when Bee sang along with the lyrics, grinning up at him. _“For better or worse, ‘til death do us part, I’ll love you with every beat of my spark.”_

Both bots slowly swayed back and forth, pedes moving carefully around each other.

“Thanks Grim,” Bee grinned.

Grimlock smiled bashfully.

The sparkling kicked hard, making Bee jump and both bots laugh aloud. Grimlock wrapped his arms around his smaller mate as best as he was able to and held him close. They didn’t let go of each other until a few songs later, when dusk had been replaced by night.

By that time Bee was slouching, struggling to keep his optics open. Grimlock didn’t hesitate to lift his carrying mate in his arms and carry him home, the soft strains of a human woman’s voice accompanying them.

_The smile on your face lets me know that you need me  
There’s a truth in your eyes sayin’ you’ll never leave me_

One of the yellow mech’s servos came up and gently rested on his shoulder strut as he dozed off quietly, optics closed but grin on his faceplates. The Dinobot thought Bumblebee was even more beautiful.

_The touch of your hand says you’ll catch me if ever I fall  
You say it best, when you say nothing at all_

.-.-.

The scrapyard was quiet and the night very, very still when Bumblebee shot up in berth, confused expression on his faceplates. The last thing he could remember was dancing, then being carried in safe and strong arms back to berth.

He looked over at Grimlock deep in recharge next to him. There was no possible way that Grimlock could have woken him. The yellow mech did a quick scan of his surroundings and found that the nearest living creature was a tiny bird perched on the roof of their little room, nowhere near loud enough to have woken him up.

Russell nor any of the bots would have been fast enough to wake him. Denny slept heavily like Grimlock. They were all out of the question.

Bumblebee was about to call it a night, again, and go back to berth when it hit him again. A painful cramp low in his abdomen that produced a cry that he struggled to hold back.

“Bee?” Grimlock had been roused from recharge, and he tiredly put a servo on Bee’s shoulder strut.

A warning flashed in the yellow mech’s visual field.

_> >>Activating: Protocol 0042<<<  
-Emergence cycle: Initiated-_


	9. I Love You

Grimlock’s panicking wasn’t making this painful and arduous process any iota easier on him.

The Dinobot had run out of the room screaming for Fixit to come here, _right now_ , but Bee managed to recover from the temporary pain to tell Grimlock to shut it and leave the rest of the bots (and the two humans) to sleep. Unfortunately his recovery did not come in time, and Grimlock had woken up the rest of the scrapyard.

“Are you okay, Bee?”

Bee curled his servos and bent his frame inward, exhaling slowly. The pains weren’t so intense now, but he knew from reading the copious amounts of data that Fixit had transferred to him that it was only going to get far worse from here. If he had to be in pain, he would take this over what was going to come later.

“I’m fine, Grim.” The pain lessened and he finally felt like he could straighten himself on the berth without doubling over. “But just so you know, it’s really nothing right now. The really painful stuff comes a lot later.”

“Doesn’ help me, Bee.”

“At least you’re not the one carrying and, I don’t know, _going into emergence,_ ” Bumblebee said, emphasizing his point by giving the Dinobot a look. Grimlock flinched under the stern gaze.

After a second Bee slowly got off the berth, closing his optics and stretching his arms out to maintain his balance. The sparkling was squirming, and he felt _everything_. It was a little bit disorienting, to say the very least.

“Lieutenant?”

“Bee?”

“Bumblebee, sir, are you-”

“I’m fine you three, it was just sudden. This one here,” Bee patted Grimlock’s upper arm, chuckling quietly at how the Dinobot flinched, “is the one that yelled and started freaking out on me. I’m fine.”

“Yes, but I still think that I should sun – fun – _run_ a scan on you to ascertain how you and the sparkling are faring.” Fixit reached up for the scanning wand that Sideswipe handed him. Strongarm grabbed the Minicon and held him up in a servo as he waved the wand over Bumblebee. The wand beeped back at him.

“Ah yes, according to the results you’re only an eleven percent dilation-”

Sideswipe made a retching noise in the background that was quickly silenced by the sound of Strongarm whapping him upside the helm.

“So is that a good thing?”

“It just means it’s going to take a while before I start yelling and threatening to rip your helm off, Grim.” Bee gently thumped the Dinobot on his chassis with the back of his servo. “May Primus have mercy on your spark.”

“Bee, I-”

“Grim, I’m kidding.” The yellow mech laughed. “I’m only kidding, let me have my…” Bee trailed off and he quickly seized the Dinobot’s servo, squeezing it and hissing through his dentae as another contraction coursed through his frame. He leaned forward slightly and put his free servo on his upper thigh, as he couldn’t reach his knee joint with the sparkling in the way.

Faintly he heard Sideswipe mutter something about this being weird and that he was going to leave. Better for him, the yellow mech thought. Otherwise the red delinquent would be next on the slapping line if he said or did something that displeased him.

Oh no. He was becoming one of _those_ carriers.

The pain ebbed away and he straightened his posture, releasing his grip on Grimlock’s servo. The Dinobot drew his servo back quickly and shook it, and only then did Bumblebee realize how much strength he’d put into his servo.

“I know walking is often recommended for carriers undergoing the emergence cycle, so I would recommend that.”

Grimlock made a whining noise at the Minicon’s suggestion, but withered when Bee shot him a look. “Come on. You heard Fixit.”

When they walked outside their makeshift room they were greeted by the sight of Sideswipe planted in front of the TV and Denny running out of his camper, eyes bright and excitable.

“Is the kiddo here yet?”

“Not yet, Denny,” Bee laughed. “It’ll be a while.”

“Aw man. Well, I hope it’s not as long as my ex’s labor with Russell.”

Out of the corner of his optic he saw the little curtain in Russell’s camper shift and small eyes peek outside.

“How long are we talkin’?” Grimlock asked, half-afraid that it really would be as long.

“Doctors said they’d never seen one last so long, but, after about twenty nine hours Russell finally decided he was done lounging around and popped out. Doctors were about to wheel her in to do a C-section too when he decided to make his grand appearance.”

The window to the second camper slid open. “DAD!”

Bee wanted to die at the thought of having to suffer the emergence cycle for longer than an Earth day lasted.

“No need to worry, Bumblebee!” came the ever-helpful Minicon’s voice as he ventured out of the room as well, followed by Strongarm (who quickly went over to Sideswipe and seated herself next to him). “From what I have learned most Cybertronian emergence cycles never last anywhere as long as humans do.”

“Well I did say that the doctors hadn’t seen a labor last that long as if did with my ex-”

“Uh, guys,” Grimlock cut in, “I think we should stop talkin’ ‘bout that.”

Bee’s doorwings were flattened against his backplates and lifted high into the air. Anyone that spent more than ten nanokliks around the yellow mech would know that such signs were evidence of his agitation.

“Oh, uh, right. Sorry Bee.”

“It’s alright Denny. I’m just going to pretend that I never heard you talk about how long it took your former mate to have Russell. C’mon Grim, I need to walk. Come with me.”

“Where are you going?”

“Where else?”

“Oh. Be careful out there. It’s night and who knows what could be out there.”

“Relax Denny, I don’t think there’s much out there that can take on a pair of Cybertronians and beat us.”

“Well,” Sideswipe’s voice cut in from the other end of the small clearing, not looking away from the TV, “there was that one bear one time…”

“That is if the bear even existed,” Strongarm scoffed.

“It totally did! But it didn’t beat me, that’s what I forgot to say.”

Bee was on the verge of snapping at the two resident teenagers, so he turned on his heel and walked off to the forest again with the resident Dinobot at his pedes. He walked ahead of Grimlock, looking back occasionally to make sure the big mech was following him.

The walk felt good. _Really_ good.

He had read it too, that walking was a good way to aid in the emergence cycle as it would allow gravity to work with your frame. The activity and motions of walking would help speed up the process as well.

The sooner this was over with, the better.

“How are you feelin’ Bee?”

“Do you want the truth or do you want me to say the usual “I’m fine”?”

“Uh… the truth.”

“I can feel another contraction coming on and it doesn’t feel nice.”

Grimlock sped up and got to Bee’s side in time to offer his servo and have it gripped tightly as Bee crouched down and rocked back and forth lightly, hissing and breathing heavily. When it was over and Bee straightened himself up, Grimlock got the courage to ask, “What does it feel like, Bee?”

“Like my gestation chamber’s being yanked upward and the sparkling’s being pushed downwards.”

“That doesn’t sound fun.”

“No, it’s not fun. And as you and Primus are my witnesses,” Bee looked up at the dark sky pattered with stars, trying to see if he might be able to find Cybertron up there, “I’m never doing this thing again. You,” he stared at the Dinobot, “are going to be happy with this one sparkling. Don’t dare ask me to carry any more for you.”

Grimlock chuckled and wrapped his arm around the yellow mech. “Wouldn’t think of it.”

Bee’s suddenly felt his strength reserves deplete entirely, and he leaned against the Dinobot’s broad chassis, closing his optics. “I need to lie down,” he mumbled quietly.

“What? But we just got out here.”

“Don’t ask questions.”

Grimlock sighed and lifted the carrying mech into his arms, taking him back to the scrapyard. He had little time to be grouchy, however, as Bumblebee curled into his arms and immediately went to sleep. The Dinobot couldn’t find it in his spark to be irritated with his mate.

“They’re watching movies over there. Wanna go?”

“What are they watching?”

“Uh, something about a gladiator.”

Bumblebee sighed. He would really have preferred some that featured the actor John Wayne, but it was hard to get everyone else into the type of films he liked. “Sure, why not.”

.-.-.

“So when’s the ship going to crash and sink?”

“Sideswipe,” Strongarm turned around and glared at the red mech seated next to her, “that’s a terrible thing to say.”

“Well this movie’s pretty terrible so far,” the other bot shot back.

“I think it’s sweet.”

“It makes me want to purge. I’ve only heard that a ship crashes and sinks in this movie but all we’ve seen for the past, what, hour and a half, is a sickening love story.”

“And you call _me_ the fun killer.”

“Both of you, be quiet.” Bee stared intently at the movie on the tiny television screen, at the humans called Jack and Rose at the bow of the ship.

Rose stretched her arms out in the wind with Jack supporting her. They watched as Rose opened her blue eyes and gasped quietly, eyes wide as she stared out at the sea before her. The music in the background began to crescendo as she said _“I’m flying!”_

“How can she be flying if she doesn’t have wings or any other appendages to aid her in flight?”

“She’s not really flyin’, Fixit,” Grimlock replied as he let Bee lie down across his lap and gently stroked the other mech’s faceplates. “She’s just sayin’ she’s flyin’ ‘cause it’s a sensation she’s feelin’.”

“Then she could say that she’s feeling like she’s flying, and not actually say she is flying. It’s a very confusing thing to say.”

Bumblebee slapped his servo over his optics and groaned. “Fixit.”

“Sorry, sorry.”

Grimlock felt bad for the other three Cybertronians and wished he could tell the yellow mech lying across his lap to go easy on them but then he would probably regret it the moment Bee either yelled at him, or burst into tears.

That’s what carriers did, right?

At this point Bumblebee was only half-attentive to the film, optics closed and free servo tracing circles over his midsection. Grimlock watched the motions, effectively distracted from the movie. The Dinobot then realized that it had been a while since Bumblebee had made pained noises to signal contractions.

::Did they stop, Bee?::

::Did what stop?::

::The, uh, contractions?::

::Hah. I wish they would. I’m just getting a little better at hiding them when they come::

::Maybe you should ask Fixit to scan you::

::After this movie’s done:: Bee moved his servo from his optics and turned his helm to the side, attention going back to the movie. ::It’s a good distraction::

Grimlock responded by purring softly. Bee closed his optics, happy grin spreading across his faceplates. He normally wasn’t one for watching films, unless they happened to be of the Western genre, but Sideswipe and Strongarm were alternating on picking films. Sideswipe had said that one called _Grease_ was up next.

“Oh, _now_ I see why Denny refused to pet- bet - _let_ Russell watch this with us.”

“What? Why?”

“Humans view an unclothed person as too vulgar for children of Russell’s age to see.”

“Can the ship please fragging **_sink_** already?”

Bee lifted one of his legs and roughly shoved Sideswipe in his backstruts, internally gleeful at the indignant _“Hey!”_ the red mech emitted. “Can it, you.”

.-.-.

To everyone’s surprise it was Fixit that showed the most emotion when the human male, Jack, went offline and Rose wept as she let go of him, his body slipping away into the depths of Earth’s ocean, whispering that she would never let go. And to their surprise Fixit didn’t ask why she said she would never let go, when she actually did.

Sideswipe had officially lost interest in the film after the ship went under, finding Strongarm’s helm fins more deserving of his attention. He lightly traced his digits over the fins, but the femme was still engrossed in the movie. She only gave half-sparked swipes of her servos at his arms.

Grimlock wrapped his arm around his mate, who was now leaning against his frame. Bee turned his helm toward the Dinobot’s frame and sighed, one of his servos coming to rest on the swell of his midsection, digits splaying on the rounded surface.

“You feelin’ okay?”

“Not really,” Bumblebee whispered quietly, closing and reopening his optics. “They’re getting a little more intense. And I just noticed the sparkling hasn’t moved in a while. It’s worrying me.”

“Fixit.”

“No, Grim-”

The orange Minicon tore his gaze from the movie, optics shiny and bright and wet. “Y-yes?”

Grimlock pointed a clawed digit at his smaller mate, trying to keep the worry free from his vocal tone but failing as he said, “Bee said the sparklin’ hasn’t moved.”

Sideswipe and Strongarm turned away from the movie and watched intently as the Minicon rolled over to the team’s leader and stuck the scanning wand in Bumblebee’s personal space.

“Well, from what I can see, the sparkling is perfectly fine and in no distress.”

“Then,” Bee leaned forward, supporting himself by placing his servos flat on the ground, “why don’t I feel any movement?”

“They’re likely in recharge, lieutenant. It does happen, after call – ball - _all_.”

Bumblebee gave a frustrated groan that was followed a moment later by a fairly painful contraction. The sudden spasm elicited a gasp from him and he curled into himself.

Grimlock was quickly at attention, rubbing circles over the mech’s backplates and letting his servo get crushed in Bee’s grip.

“Oh I did forget to mention that the lieutenant is moving to active emergence.”

“Wait what?” Bee gasped out, optics wide and staring at Fixit.

The Minicon shook the scanning wand. “It says here you’re at sixty percent. After that comes the transition phase where dilation reaches one hundred percent.”

Bee was pissed. He didn’t know who he was pissed at – his frame, himself, Fixit for not saying anything sooner, at Grimlock for putting him into this mess, or Sideswipe and Strongarm for just _staring_ at him and not doing anything. He grit his dentae, closed his optics and turned his helm into Grimlock’s frame, breathing heavily. Primus frag, these things were absolutely painful. Part of his frame felt like it was going to split apart.

In the end he decided to get mad at Primus for letting the little spark take to his.

Just then the sparkling moved. He felt flutters of anxiety from the other end.

All things considered he couldn’t seem to be upset at the sparkling. Not anymore, at least. He reopened his optics and slowed his inhalation-exhalation rate, looking up at Grimlock’s sweet and dopey visage. Finding it impossible to hold it back, he smiled up at the Dinobot.

::You’re gettin’ there, Bee::

::I know. I’m almost there::

.-.-.

The last ten percent of the active emergence phase lasted way too long, but once transition came Bumblebee found himself wishing that the active emergence phase had lasted a lot longer. There was no way that any of the text he’d read pertaining to carrying cycles could have prepared him for this amount of pain.

“This is the most painful part of the emergence process, but it’s supposedly the shortest, as the next – hext – _text_ tells us.”

Bee gasped as the most recent contraction ebbed away. He breathed heavily, trying to regain some composure and strength before the next one came. “Y-yeah, that’s not helping much Fixit.”

“Sorry.”

Grimlock leaned over and kissed Bumblebee on his faceplates, engine rumbling softly. The vibrations helped sooth the lieutenant’s strained frame some.

Suddenly Bee jerked upward, putting his servo to his mouth. Grimlock quickly tried to help the yellow mech up and to the large waste bin that had been set out, but Bee shoved the Dinobot aside and fell to his servos and knees, retching. His arms shook and his armor began shaking. Grimlock wound his arms around Bee and pulled him up, supporting the mech as he continued purging.

When the purging fit had passed, Bumblebee groaned in disgust. He looked over his shoulder strut and door wing at Grimlock’s apologetic face. “Oh yeah, I am _definitely_ not doing this all over again.”

The moment he said that, he purged again.

“Everything alright out here?” Denny called from the open door of his camper, where he was sitting and waiting for something, anything interesting to happen. Namely, the arrival of a new Cybertronian.

“If you count purging and my frame feeling like it’s going to split apart, yes, I feel alright.”

“Ah, you’re sounding better than my ex did at this point.” Denny sat down in the doorway of his camper and everyone heard the hiss and crack of a carbonated drink being opened. “Grimlock, be happy he’s not yelling that he’s going to rip you apart and throw you into an active volcano.”

“Wait, what?” Sideswipe looked incredulously at the human, who looked back at him and gave a one-shouldered shrug.

“Well, that’s what she told me.”

“Oooh,” Bee moaned as Grimlock moved his servos and began rubbing at his lower back, tilting his helm backwards. “Denny, don’t give me any new ideas. I’d love to do that right about now.”

There was a frightened noise from the Dinobot. Everyone, even Bumblebee, had a laugh at Grimlock’s expense.

“I already told you I was sorry, Bee.”

“Grim, you should know by now that I’m kidding.”

“Oh. Uh, right. I knew that.”

“No you did-”

He was suddenly cut off midsentence by the appearance of yet another contraction. His arms wrapped around his midsection as he shouted and leaned forward, shoving away Grimlock’s arms as they tried to wrap around his frame. The yellow mech hummed loudly to himself, putting his chin to his chassis, and slowly rode out the painful spasms.

Denny made a soft noise with his tongue against the roof of his mouth and looked at the Dinobot looking right at him, optics wide in a sort of plea for help. “This all looks strangely familiar.”

The door to Russell’s camper opened and the young boy stepped out in his pajamas, rubbing his eyes with his wrists. “So mom was like that when she was having me?”

“A lot worse than this, Russell. Then again I’m not on the receiving end of threats this time around.”

“Knowing mom and her temper, I’m pretty sure it was bad.”

“You don’t even know half of it, son.”

“GRIM!”

The shout echoed in the immediate area. Denny and Russell stood on the steps of their respective campers, and Sideswipe and Strongarm (who had been falling asleep in a pile on the other side of the clearing) bolted upright and away from each other.

Bumblebee’s optics were wide and wild, his inhalation cycle having increased. His servos curled into fists and he slammed them onto the ground as he cried out.

“Bee!” Grimlock placed himself in front of the yellow mech and held his servos out, placing his servos on Bee’s upper arms

“Lieutenant-”

“One almost ended then another came and took it over. Primus fraggit, _fraggit_ , Grimlock,” Bee looked absolutely fit to murder something as he glared hard at the black and green mech before him, “I hope you know how lucky you are that you’re still functioning _oh my fragging PRIMUS_!”

Fixit piped up. “He is currently dilated at almost ninety percent. It’s almost time.”

“Get everyone away from here, now,” Bee grit out between his denate, entire frame tensing up. He grabbed Grimlock and drew him in, burying his face into the confused and startled Dinobot’s chassis. “Grimlock, this hurts, fraggit, and I wouldn’t even wish it on anyone,” he sobbed into the Dinobot’s chassis.

One of the Dinobot’s large servos came to rest on his back. Bee grabbed Grimlock like the Dinobot himself was a lifeline and opened up a communication channel with the large mech.

::I’m scared Grim. I’m so scared::

Bee finally let someone else feel his electromagnetic field, and Grimlock was immediately overwhelmed by all the fear and anxiety that the yellow mech felt. He nuzzled his face next to Bee’s.

::I know you’re nervous Bee. But you’ll be fine. Gonna get through this and I’ll be here with you::

The servos gripping his armor tightened their grip, and Bumblebee looked up at Grimlock with teary optics full of fear.

::What if we don’t do well as creators, Grim? What if I’m not a good carrier?::

The Dinobot moved his other servo to stroke Bee’s helm. ::Bee, you’re gonna be the best carrier that our sparklin’ could ask for. Believe me::

A laugh forced its way out of Bumblebee’s vocalizer. ::I have a hard time believing that::

::You will be!::

Bumblebee only smiled sadly and brought his dark servos up to cup Grimlock’s face.

.-.-.

The rippling pain he had felt during the transition phase was nothing compared to the pain of his valve being split open. Right around the time the sparkling began dropping, he yelled for Grimlock to take him back to their little room, because no way in Pit was he going to allow the others to watch him in his most vulnerable moments. It was just him lying on the ground, his helm in Grimlock’s lap, and Fixit keeping an optic on the scanning wand.

Every last ounce of his strength was focused solely on pushing the sparkling out of his gestation chamber, out his valve, and into his servos. He felt the pain of his valve stretching around the sparkling’s helm but delegated it to the back of his processor as he bore down, straining his abdominal cables as he felt the sparkling descend further.

The encouraging purrs against his back that came from the Dinobot’s chassis helped slightly soothe the agony, but it was only a small balm.

“You’re doin’ great, Bee,” Grimlock whispered into his audio, large servos coming to grip at Bee’s own. “You’re doin’ great. I love you.”

The yellow mech’s spark leapt at the sound of those three words. He leaned his helm back into Grimlock’s chassis and sighed, smiling. “I love you too, Grim.”

A moment later Bee felt the overwhelming urge to push. He cried out and seized Grimlock’s servos, crushing them with a might he didn’t know he possessed. The Dinobot gave a pained squeak, but made no motion to yank his servos away.

“Fixit,” Bee hissed through gritted dentae, “do I push again, or no?”

“Again, lieutenant.”

Grimlock had never heard a scream like the one that Bumblebee gave as he bore down with every bit of strength he could muster from his frame. Everything had been spent. _Just a little more_ , Grimlock thought and transmitted to Bee over their private communication link.

In response the Dinobot received some vague threats about tossing his frame into the ocean. He shuffled the threats away in the back of his processor to, hopefully, laugh with Bee at them later on.

Bee cried. The contraction ebbed away, and he reached between his thighs, feeling for the sparkling’s helm. When he felt it with his own servo, he yanked it back and got onto his servos and knees.

“Bee, what are you doin’?”

Looking over his shoulder strut at the Dinobot behind him, Bee rasped out, “The sparkling’s coming.”

“But why are you lying like that?”

“Just, trust me on this Grim.” Bee lowered his helm to the ground, placing his joined servos under his helm, and groaned loudly. “Come out, come out, _come out_ ,” he chanted softly, rolling his hips and lower frame to try and soothe the pain.

Another one hit, and Bumblebee cried out again as his valve constricted and pushed with all his strength and a little more borrowed from the energy of the Dinobot kneeling in front of him, servos helping hold him up, optics looking into his own with an expression that Bee couldn’t and didn’t care to decipher right now. His entire being was focused on this one task and this one task only.

Finally, _finally,_ Bumblebee gave a strangled shout as the sparkling slipped the entire way out of his valve. With rapid reflexes he reached a servo between his legs and caught the sparkling, quickly yanking the newspark to his front. The sudden feeling of emptiness, after he had felt so full in his midsection for so long, was disorienting, and the yellow mech gasped in shock as he laid down, chassis and midsection on the ground, and held his sparkling in his servos.

Primus, the sparkling was so small.

“ _Oh… ohhhh,”_ he breathed softly, fluid streaming out of his optics and down his faceplates. Black claws came into view, hesitantly touching the sparkling as if afraid the newspark would break upon contact. Through teary optics Bee looked up and saw Grimlock’s optics wide, the Dinobot’s servos touching the sparkling, this tiny little thing they had made together.

The sparkling squirmed at the touch from their sire, opening their mouth and hiccupping, the little springing noise echoing. Their optics opened for the very first time, blue orbs blinking against the darkness.

Bumblebee gave a choked sob of relief, that his sparkling was here and perfect, and that he was no longer carrying. He drew the sparkling into his arms, coaxing the tiny chestplates open and sobbing when a gold spark revealed itself.

“Oh! It’s a femme!” came Fixit’s excited voice as he raced out of the room, no doubt headed to tell the others the news.

Bee and Grimlock had to laugh when the Minicon shouted at the top of his vocalizer _“It’s a femme!”_

She cried softly, servos jerking outward and clutching with weak, unsure little digits at her carrier’s chestplates.

Instinct took over and the green mech laid down across from Bumblebee and gently tugged the sparkling toward him. Despite what had been ordered, Grimlock began laving his glossa over the little sparkling’s frame to clean her of the birth fluids.

In response the sparkling made a weak noise that sounded akin to a growl.

The yellow mech had expected this to still occur. He had no strength to order Grimlock to stop, or to threaten to stick Grimlock back in his stasis cell. Honestly, he wouldn’t have followed through with it in the first place.

The sparkling seemed to muster all the strength she had in her tiny frame and loudly snarled at her sire, limbs jerking awkwardly as she threw all her might into trying to kick away the glossa cleaning her off.

Bee gave a sound partway between a laugh and a cry. He pulled the sparkling away from her sire and placed her right in front of him, in his arms again, his laughs and cries turning into full blown sobs as he choked out, “You’re here, you’re so beautiful.”

She hiccupped and wailed loudly, missing the warmth of her carrier’s frame. A tiny servo unfurled and touched his faceplates, and Bee moved his faceplates and kissed the little hand. “I love you,” he sobbed, his spark wrapping around this little femme. Primus, she was absolutely perfect. “I l-love you, so much.”

Grimlock sat up and gently gathered both his mate and his newly sparked child in his arms and held them close, frame shaking and racked with sobs. After all this time, after what Bee and him had been through, she was finally here.

Bee turned his faceplates into Grimlock’s chassis, legs still spread, trail of birth fluid staining the ground, wailing sparkling in his arms as she sought warmth and comfort.

The Dinobot pulled the lieutenant’s faceplates into his servos and kissed him. “You’re amazin’.”

All Bee could do was smile. He looked down at the wailing sparkling curled against his chassis, and wrapped his electromagnetic field around her little frame.

It was like hitting a switch. The sparkling immediately calmed down. She looked into the blue optics staring at her. Deep in his spark, Bee felt a curious pulse come his way, sent from the sparkling.

 _Are you carrier?_ it seemed to ask of him. He kissed the sparkling’s forehelm and sent back something that could only be described as love.

There were voices outside, coming closer, and footfalls getting louder by the second.

“Primus, she’s perfect,” Grimlock said softly, digit stroking her faceplates. She reached up and grabbed it, holding it in a firm grip. He looked at Bee while still gently moving his digit around, the femmeling yanking on it in a form of tug-of-war. “Isn’ she?”

“Yeah. She’s perfect.”  He thought back to her first actions in life, growling and snarling, and laughed quietly, stroking the femme’s helm with a single digit. “Our little Snarl. She’s perfect.”

Grimlock’s electromagnetic field went slack and stiff, as if in shock. Then he suddenly wrapped his arms around Bee and buried his faceplates in the crook of Bee’s neck.

The rest of the team and the two humans hurried in, exclaiming at the arrival of the sparkling. Strongarm immediately reached her servos out, begging to hold her lieutenant’s newspark. Sideswipe pretended that he didn’t care while not doing a good job of it, as he was sneaking glances at the tiny sparkling. Denny and Russell were grinning, while Denny said, “Isn’t that adorable?”

::Thank you Bee::

Snarl hesitantly blinked her optics at all the attention she was receiving, and decided it was time to take a nap, dozing off in her carrier’s arms.


	10. More Perfect

“This is it.”

Grimlock opened his optics and looked at Bumblebee, who was sitting on the berth, legs crossed with a small bundle in his arms.

Denny had given them a mashed up sheet of many blankets that he had stitched together to create one large blanket for the sparkling. He had apologized that it was really roughly stitched together and that it was only one, but Bumblebee had been extremely grateful for the gift to the point that he had cried.

The Dinobot heard a soft noise from the bundle in Bee’s arms. Sharp tipped digits slowly reached out and curled around the softness of the blanket.

“What’s it, Bee?” Grimlock uncurled himself from his sleeping positon on the floor.

“That she’s here, and that we’re in this together, Grim. It’s been two solar cycles. But just hit me.”

Snarl cooed in her recharge, yawning. She had been drifting in and out of recharge since she’d greeted the universe outside the confines of her warm chamber.

The yellow-plated mech looked down at the little femme, spark heavy with an emotion he could only describe as a mixture of the deepest, purest love, and utmost protectiveness. For the umpteenth time he looked over the tiny frame, checking each inch of her and making sure that she was real and that she was alive. Her chest rising up and down affirmed it.

“She’s perfect.”

Grimlock got to his pedes and slowly lumbered to the berth, climbing atop it and curling around Bumblebee’s frame. The yellow mech let out a relieved sigh as he sank back into Grimlock’s frame, moving Snarl around so she lay on his chassis while giving her sire a good look at her.

Her tiny optics fluttered open for the briefest moment and stared, unfocused, at her carrier and sire before they shut again.

“Remember how you said that you hoped the sparkling would take after you, Grim? She definitely does.”

“Really?”

“Grim… Grim, she’s two solar cycles old. Have you actually _looked_ at her?”

The Dinobot did so and his spark leapt. Indeed the femme looked like almost an exact copy of him, from the structure of the helm to the wide shoulders adorned with pauldrons and large pedes. Tiny digits curled on her carrier’s chassis came to a sharp point.

They would have to be careful when handling her as she grew older – she had the potential to give them a nasty scratch.

The only things she’d inherited from the lieutenant were his shiny silver faceplates and tiny nubs on her back that certainly looked like door wings would sprout from them one day.

“She does, Bee. She does.” If Grimlock weren’t in the position of being a cushion right now, he would have danced and puffed up his chassis with pride. “She does look like me!” His entire frame wriggled in excitement, unable to contain his joy.

Bee closed his optics and sighed, leaning his helm back as a singular digit gently stroked the space between the nubs on her back. The little femme responded by curling her servos into fists. The nubs on her backplates twitched.

Grimlock settled down and purred, pressing his mouthplates against Bee’s audio. “She’s perfect, Bee. Only way she could be more perfect is if she looked like you.”

Snarl squeaked in her recharge, little legs shooting out in a weak kick. She brought her servos up to her optics and rubbed them against the covers.

“No Grim. She’s perfect the way she is. Dinobot coding and all.”

Part of him wondered if she would take on a mode just like Grimlock’s, or be something new altogether. They wouldn’t find out exactly what she would become until a few stellar cycles from now. He couldn’t wait to discover her.

Grimlock pressed himself further into Bee’s frame, optics wide and watchful over the tiny frame moving and twitching lightly in recharge. “What do you think she’ll be like, Bee?”

“I don’t know. We’ll have to wait and see, but I think,” Bee leaned his helm back into Grimlock’s chassis, “that’s she’s gonna be a lot like you.”

The Dinobot pulsed happiness at both his mate and their daughter, perfectly content to stay where he was for the rest of his life cycle.

He thought back to his old team, and wondered what they would think of him now. He wondered what Snarl would think of the little femme being named for him.

Grimlock hoped he would have been very happy.

Thoughts came to his processor of his entire team passing the little Snarl around, holding her up to their optics and making faces to get reactions out of her. They would be bored of their processors if they saw his and Bumblebee’s daughter in this particular state, as a newspark incapable of expressing much emotion. If they saw her as an older sparkling, however, he knew that they would get a kick out of her.

Snarl began whimpering and gripping tightly at the seams between her carrier’s chestplates, sticking her glossa out into the air. The sudden noises of distress coming from his offspring set Grimlock on edge and he widened his optics and lifted his helm up, scanning the immediate environment for any foreign beings/substances that could bring harm.

Bumblebee sensed the heightened anxiety in the Dinobot and bumped his calm electromagnetic field against Grimlock’s. “She wants to be fed. She’s perfectly fine, Grim.”

“Oh. Right.” The many alarms that had been tripped in Grimlock’s processor ceased their alerts and he settled back in with the yellow mech and the newspark cuddled to his chassis. “I knew that.” He watched as one of Bumblebee’s chestplates shifted slightly aside, and a thick tube filled with energon dropped from his chassis.

Bee adjusted his grip on the little femme so he held her in one arm while his other servo fumbled with the tube, gripping it securely in his digits as he held it to Snarl’s lipplates. The femme opened her optics at the feeling of something bumping against her little mouthplates but an inborn instinct quickly took over, and she seized the feeding tube with her mouth and greedily drank down the energon offered to her.

After a quiet few minutes of both creators watching the tiny femme feed, Grimlock felt Bumblebee quivering. He wondered if the yellow mech was crying, but then stifled chuckles met his audio receptors.

“Uh, Bee?”

The yellow lieutenant stopped. “Anything wrong, Grim?”

“No, just… why were you laughin’?”

“I was just thinking about how my old team would react to seeing me like this. I was, y’know, the youngling of the entire group. How would they look and what would they think if they saw me with a sparkling, and the fact that I’m with you.”

“I hope they wouldn’ hate me. Y’know, being a Dinobot and all, sparking up the younglin’ of their group. Though you’re not exactly a younglin’ anyway.”

Snarl warbled quietly and fell into recharge, feeding tube still in her mouth. Bee tucked the tube away and closed his chassis as he swept a digit over the little femme’s lipplates, wiping away any leftover energon.

“She likes rechargin’ a lot, doesn’ she?”

“Sparklings like their recharge. Ah, to be a sparkling again,” Bee said wistfully.

A moment later, the yellow mech was deep in recharge, leaning back on Grimlock’s chassis. Normally the Dinobot would have been happy to act as a berth for his mate and their daughter, but he was left leaning against the wall of their little room, and it was not very comfortable for him.

Judging by the blissfully happy and at-peace expression on the yellow mech’s faceplates, Grimlock was a very comfortable berth.

The Dinobot internally whined at the prospect of having to sit like this for the rest of the night, or however long until Snarl began crying for her carrier’s attention. However, he stayed still, only tilting his helm to the side as he tried to fall into recharge. His attempt succeeded, and before he could think much further he was fast asleep with his mate and their sparkling.

.-.-.

Soft little beeps and coos woke him from recharge. It was still dark outside, and Bee could see some stars twinkling in the patch of night sky that was visible in the doorway from the berth. Snarl was moving her arms and legs, chirring, looking around in fascination.

“Primus, you’re active,” Bee mumbled quietly, sitting up and away from Grimlock’s chassis, holding Snarl somewhat awkwardly in his arm. He held her weight in both arms and slowly got off the berth, making sure not to wake the large Dinobot sire. Grimlock only grunted in his sleep but didn’t wake.

Bee walked out of the room, looking up at the stars. He could guess an approximate location of Cybertron from where he was, and he wondered how long it would be until he would show Snarl where her creators’ homeworld was.

Moreover, he hoped they could return soon, so she could know her ancestral lands. He wanted to take her to the mountains and the lakes on Cybertron, and show her the glowing Well. And he wanted to stand outside with her and pinpoint the location of the Earth’s Sun, and tell her that she was born on a little rocky world orbiting that tiny pinprick of light in the night sky.

His frame still hurt from the ordeal, and he still looked like he was in the midst of a carrying cycle but there was no extra weight of a tiny Dinobot inside of him. The weight had been transferred outside, into his arms.

Snarl’s face was turned up at the sky, blinking at the little bits of light reaching her optics from so far away. She slowly, awkwardly waved a servo and cooed at the sky.

“You like the lights, don’t you?”

In response, the femme gave a soft chirp.

Bumblebee laughed and strode quietly around the scrapyard, going between aisles of Denny’s collectables and stepping over stray ovens and washing machines that hadn’t been pushed up into neat rows. “Y’know those things are called stars, right?”

She didn’t look at him or acknowledge that he’d spoken to her.

“You don’t understand me yet, but I’m really looking forward to the day you can start to. The big lug over there that you call your sire and I have a lot we need to teach you, and that we want to teach you.”

Snarl yawned and looked back at her carrier. Bee swore he saw her little wing nubs twitch. He wanted to see what she would look like with full doorwings like his.

“I have a lot to tell you about me, and I know Grim’s got a lot about himself he’s gonna want to tell you.” The sparkling curled up to his chassis and he held her tightly in one arm, covering the back of her helm with his free servo and he gently bounced her up and down. “And I also have to tell you about the awesome mythological figures of Cybertron, along with the historical ones. Those are a little more boring though,” he laughed softly, spinning on his heel as he paced back and forth by Fixit’s main console. “But you’re still gonna have to learn about them, like I did.”

Snarl squeaked and shifted around in her carrier’s arms, bringing her arms up to touch his neck cables.

“Not all of them are really boring though. I’ll save the best and more exciting ones for last, as Optimus did for me.”

At the thought of the long-gone Prime, Bumblebee felt his spark sink. Once more his processor was flooded with memories of his old team.

Ratchet yelling at Bulkhead for breaking yet another tool of his.

Arcee and Cliffjumper laughing and talking, then Arcee talking to a pile of stones and updating Cliffjumper on the day’s events.

Smokescreen flirting terribly with him.

Wheeljack and Ultra Magnus getting in each other’s faceplates – Bumblebee often wanted to beep at them and tell them to get a room and get it over with already.

The kids all playing video games under the watchful eyes of June and Agent Fowler.

And then there was Optimus, watching over them all from a distance like a sentinel in the night. Both belonging and not belonging.

“You’re gonna hear a lot about Optimus, Snarl. He’s the reason why a lot of us, why Sideswipe and Strongarm, are in existence. He’s the reason why Cybertron lives again. And, he’s part of the reason why I’m able to talk to you like this. I’ll tell you the story later but I couldn’t speak for a long time. I could only communicate in beeps and chirps, a little bit like you, but my noises were at a frequency that everyone who spoke Cybertronian could understand.” He kissed the top of the little femme’s helm. “Sorry you can’t communicate like that.”

The femme chirped softly, curling and uncurling her servos.

“The real reason I can talk is because I died, and was reborn. But if Optimus hadn’t led me in battle, into the fight that killed me in the first place, I wouldn’t have had a chance to come back with a fully functioning voicebox.”

He looked over his shoulder strut, making sure Grimlock wasn’t there listening in. The last thing he needed was a giant Dinobot worrying over him and insisting that he never leave the scrapyard for fear of something happening to him.

“Everyone else, to my knowledge, is alive. Optimus isn’t. You’ll probably meet them all one day. I just… I wish Optimus could have met you. He cared for me like I was his own sparkling. I know he would have thought you were the best thing in the universe.”

Snarl didn’t respond. He looked and saw that her optics were closed, servos curled on her chassis as she recharged.

Bumblebee sighed. “I was that boring, huh?” Then he chuckled.

There would be more chances for him to bore the lights out of his little daughter. He turned around, heading back for the room. He hoped he’d be able to get some sleep in before she woke him up all over again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There are one or two more chapters left to this story. I'm excited at the response that it has gotten so far.


	11. About Bonding

“Snarl. Can you look at me?”

Large optics blinked inquisitively at him. Small servos waved at him before finding grip on his chest armor.

Bee smiled and kissed the little femme’s forehelm, nuzzling her faceplates with his before he got to his full height and brought Grimlock’s helm down toward him, kissing the Dinobot.

Grimlock purred quietly, using his free servo to stroke the yellow mech’s faceplates. Between them, Snarl cooed. Little servos pawed at his chassis and arms, an obvious plea for attention.

“Think you two will be okay, Grim?”

“Bee, you’re doubtin’ me and my sire-ly abilities.” Grimlock puffed his chassis out. “Snarl and I’ll be just fine.”

“I’m just asking to make sure, Grim. I’m… I’m nervous.” Bumblebee gently took the femmeling from her sire’s arms and into his own, cradling her against his chassis. Primus, only two Earth months old, and she had grown so much bigger. Memories of her soft kicks against the palm of his servo flooded his processor, warming his spark. “Nervous ‘cause this is gonna be the first time I’ll be separated from her for longer than a cycle.”

“Bee, you got nothin’ to worry about. Snarl’s in her sire’s servos,” Grimlock excitedly took her back from the lieutenant’s arms, pressing her against his chassis (and eliciting a high-pitched squeak from the little femme), “so she’s in _good_ servos!”

Bumblebee arched an optic ridge, but decided that he could trust the Dinobot for these few cycles. He was the sire, after all. He leaned forward and kissed Snarl’s forehelm again, pulsing love and affection at her over their creator-creation bond. “Be a good sparkling for your sire, alright Snarl?”

_Chirp!_

“We’ll be back as soon as we’re done with patrol, Grim.”

“See ya when ya get back, Bee!” Grimlock held Snarl in one arm, and used his other servo to lift the closest sparkling arm up and wave it around. Snarl opened and closed her little servo as her sire waved her servo for her.

Bee smiled, and then faced forward, looking at Strongarm and Sideswipe. “Let’s rock ‘n rumble!”

Silence. Snarl seemed to enjoy the sound of her carrier’s voice, no matter what he said. From behind him he heard her squeak happily and a noise that sounded like she was clapping her little servos together.

Strongarm placed her helm in her servos. Sideswipe rolled his optics.

“Alright, j-just transform please.”

Strongarm and Sideswipe did so. Bee looked down at the ground. Then he realized – he could see the _ground_.

“Lieutenant?”

“Oh. Sorry, Strongarm. It’s just… I haven’t done this in a while.” Bumblebee closed his optics and willed his transformation cog to come back online after months of lying dormant. It took a long while, however, and just as he felt panic rising in his frame, his HUD screen showed him it was now coming online.

He sent a silent signal to take on his vehicular mode. Before he knew it, he was at ground level, and Snarl gave a startled squawk.

“Alright team, let’s roll out!” he shouted, but before either Strongarm or Sideswipe could rev their engines and drive off, Bumblebee had left them in a cloud of dirt and dust.

He sped along the road at a higher speed than normal, elated at the feel of the wind roughly caressing his frame and the feel of the gravel under his tires.

How glad he was that he was no longer carrying.

.-.-.

“Snarl. Snarl.” Grimlock wiggled his digits in front of the Dinobot sparkling, giggling as she widened her optics and followed the motion of his digits with rapt attention. “Snarl, can you say “sire”?”

Snarl looked from the large, pointy digits to the large Dinobot hovering over her for a moment, then turned back to looking at the digits. Before Grimlock could pull them away, she had reached out and grabbed one each in her little hands. She squealed and rocked back and forth on the edge of the console.

“Sire! Say “sire”!”

“You’re out of l-luck there Grimlock!” a chipper voice that could only belong to the resident Minicon reached his audio receptors. Fixit’s helm popped up from behind the console, his optics bright. “Sparkling speech processors don’t online until they’re about half a stellar cycle old, so it’ll be perhaps an Earth year or so when Snarl will start trying to balk – stalk – _talk_ back to you!”

“Aww.” The Dinobot looked crestfallen as he looked at the sparkling now taking his digits into her mouth and biting down on them. “That’s gonna take forever.”

“Ah but it’ll be here before you and Bumblebee know it! And then before you b-both know it, she’ll be off on her own!”

The image of Snarl being fully-grown (possibly his height even, the Dinobot thought) and going off to live her own life scared the green and black mech. He picked Snarl up into his arms and held her close to his spark.

Snarl protested being squished against her sire. She flailed her arms and chirped sharply, scrabbling her arms and legs as she tried to get out of his tight grip. Grimlock lessened the pressure and looked down to see a miffed Dinobot sparkling glaring at him.

He brought his helm down to hers so they were almost optic level. “Snarl, you’re never allowed ta leave me an’ your carrier, okay?”

 _Chirp!_ Snarl began wriggling in his grip and he put her back on the console.

“Ah,” he kissed her forehelm, and her sharp chirps softened to affectionate coos, “I know I can’t stop ya from leavin’ some solar cycle.”

Tiny, sharp digits came up and clacked on his faceplates. Grimlock giggled and nuzzled her faceplates with his, just as he’d seen Bumblebee do earlier. The tiny femme responded in kind, chirping softly.

The Dinobot pulsed affection at her through his electromagnetic field, wrapping it around hers. This seemed to energize her, as her optics grew wide and she flicked the little doorwings adorning her back that he’d forgotten were there.

“Ya know,” Grimlock booped her forehelm with a single digit, eliciting a squeak, “I wonder what kinda Dinobot she’ll be.”

“What do you mean by that?”

“Y’know, like… is she gonna be a Dinobot with a form like me, or is she gonna look different in Dinobot mode?”

“Oh! Well given that she looks like a miniature version of you, I would sink – blink – _think_ that Snarl would take after you!”

Almost as if she’d understood the Minicon and wanted to affirm what he had said, Snarl chirped and tossed her servos up in the air. The sudden motion threw off her balance, and Grimlock shrieked in panic as he dove forward and grabbed Snarl before she could tumble backwards onto Fixit. He sighed in relief and hugged her close, spark hammering against its casing.

_Chirr, chirr, chirp!_

“Were ‘bout to give me a spark attack there, Snarl. Come, gonna carry ya around so I can keep an optic on ya.”

The little femme chirred quietly, snuggling close to her sire’s frame as he walked to the other end of the scrapyard. She kneaded her servos on his chestplates, chirping.

“Can’t wait ‘til you’re older, Snarl,” Grimlock said, holding the femme in his servos as he lifted her to face him. She blinked at him and stuck her glossa out, kicking her legs. The mech grinned brightly and kissed her helm again. “I wanna teach you how to be a Dinobot. You’re gonna love smashin’ stuff with me.”

_Chirr!_

“Me and the other Dinobots, we were known on Cybertron for smashin’ stuff real good. It needed breakin’, it needed smashin’, we were there!”

Snarl yawned in his face and blinked her wide optics at him.

“And y’know I think you’re gonna be a Dinobot with a mode just like mine. We’ll do double the damage, what do ya say Snarl?”

Grimlock knew of course that Snarl had no way to understand what he was saying, but he was delighted at her seemingly endless enthusiasm. She let out a stream of happy chirps, chirrs, and warbles, and threw her servos up in the air.

“That’s my little femme!”

He thought of himself and his old team taking her out to smash things, and his spark sank.

Snarl seemed to sense her sire’s sudden bout of melancholy, and reached a servo out to him, warbling quietly. She pulsed her electromagnetic field at him.

“Ah,” Grimlock hugged her in his arms again as he paced between aisles of Denny’s stuff. “Wish your carrier and I were bonded so I could talk to ya and know what you were thinkin’.”

Snarl looked at him inquisitively. Grimlock pretended that she understood him. “But I’m waitin’ for him to say somethin’. I’d think he woulda brought it up already since we got you now. Hmm… maybe you should say somethin’ to him! Later on, when you can talk, ask him why sire and carrier aren’t bonded!”

 _Chirp!_ Snarl kicked and threw her arms up in the air again, her servos close enough that they punched her sire under his chin. The action elicited a startled noise from the Dinobot, but Grimlock quickly recovered. “That’s my little femme,” Grimlock chuckled, nuzzling his faceplates against Snarl’s.

.-.-.

“I was waiting for you to say something about bonding.”

Bumblebee grinned to himself as Grimlock’s optics blearily opened and stared at him. Snarl, curled up in recharge on her sire’s chassis he’d laid on her creators’ shared berth, immediately woke and held her servos out for her carrier, wriggling excitedly. The yellow mech laughed and hoisted Snarl into his arms, kissing her all over her silver face.

“How did Snarl do while I was gone, Grim?” Bee asked nonchalantly, sitting on the berth and bouncing his daughter on his knees, holding onto her. Snarl squealed with each bounce of her carrier’s legs. “Did she cry for me?”

"N-no she didn't."

“Good. She heard me talking to her over the creator-creation bond. Kept it up most of the time so she wouldn’t give you such a hard time.”

“Oh. Thanks, Bee.”

The lieutenant laid down on the berth, tucking himself next to Grimlock and putting their daughter between them. Snarl cooed.

“I heard you mention that you wanted to bond with me.”

“How?”

“Creator-creation bond, Grim. She doesn’t know how to block it just yet, so everything she feels, sees, hears, she shares it with me even though she’s not aware of it. Heard everything.”

Grimlock looked embarrassed to have been overheard. He felt little digits poke at his chassis and he glanced down to see Snarl clacking her claws against his chestplates.

“So, uh… what do you say, Bee?”

Bright optics looked up from the sparkling between them, and Grimlock realized that they were a brighter blue than he was used to. A nanoklik later he realized it was growing dark outside.

Bee got off the berth, holding Snarl in one servo, and motioned for Grimlock to follow him. Without further word, the lieutenant emerged from the berthroom and walked over to Strongarm and Sideswipe, who were busy squabbling over who got TV privileges for the night.

“-saw that show about cars yesterday, Sideswipe, it’s my turn!”

“Why would you want to watch a show about _dresses_ Strongarm! It’s not like you’ll be able to fit in one anyway!”

“It’s none of your business why I want to watch that show, and if anything I should ask you why _you_ want to watch cars when you’ll never be as fast and loud as they are-”

“Quick you two,” Bumblebee held Snarl out in front of him and between the two juvenile-acting Cybertronians, making the Dinobot femme squawk. “Whomever Snarl reaches for first, gets to pick the TV show for tonight.”

All optics looked at Snarl. The femme chirped and looked directly at Strongarm, holding a servo out to her.

The white-armored femme looked smugly at the red-armored mech. “Suck it, Sideswipe.”

“Oh, whatever. Not like I’d want to be around a sparkling anyway, they’re not as cute when they start getting minds of their own.”

“Here you go, Strongarm,” Bumblebee gently placed Snarl in the cadet’s arms, smiling at the image of Strongarm bouncing up and down excitedly as she got to hold the sparkling. Snarl looked up at the femme holding her, wide optics focused on the golden chevron that adorned the cadet’s helm. “I’m trusting you to keep her safe for a bit.”

“Where are you going, lieutenant?”

“Grimlock and I need to have a talk.”

“Oh!” A knowing look crossed the white and blue femme’s faceplates and she winked an optic at her commanding officer. “Well, don’t have too much fun. Snarl’s gonna miss you both a lot.”

“I know.” Bumblebee kissed Snarl’s forehelm. “We’ll be back soon, Snarl. Be a good femme for Strongarm, okay?”

The femmeling warbled. Bumblebee turned around and glared at Sideswipe. “And I don’t want to hear that you and Strongarm squabbled again. I’d like for Snarl to not start crying.”

Sideswipe scoffed but said nothing else.

Grimlock had been standing at a distance, watching the exchange quietly. When Bumblebee neared his position he held a servo out. Bumblebee took it and led the Dinobot into the forest.

A long while later (or at least what felt like a long while later to the smaller mech) they came to the same lake that they had come to, all those months ago. When Bumblebee was distraught, confused, scared to the Pit, and Grimlock was helpless, and they both had no idea what they were getting themselves into.

Primus. That all seemed so long ago.

“You sure about this, Bee?”

The yellow-plated mech slipped his other servo into Grimlock’s unoccupied one, pulling the Dinobot closer. He looked into the larger mech’s optics, two beams of light in the dark of night, and nodded. A smile tugged at his faceplates. “I wasn’t sure about joining the city police after the war. I wasn’t sure whether or not to follow all those cues that Optimus left me that led me back here to Earth. And I wasn’t sure about whether I should have seen my carrying cycle through, but you are one of two things that I am absolutely sure of.”

Grimlock smiled back. He brushed his lipplates over Bee’s own. “What’s the other thing?”

Bee bared his spark, brilliantly blue, tendrils of light reaching out toward Grimlock’s. His already blue optics looked even bluer in the shine of his spark and the shine of Grimlock’s spark as it was revealed. He reached out with tender digits and stroked the aura of the Dinobot’s life force, chuckling quietly as Grimlock shivered under his touch.

“The other thing,” he pressed his servos to Grimlock’s middle, coaxing him to lie down in a bed of grass at the base of a tree. “That I know I’m sure of,” he leaned over and kissed the Dinobot, their sparks coming within mere inches of each other but it was not enough as Grimlock arched his back, seeking a union. “Is that I did the right thing in carrying Snarl.”

Their sparks finally joined, creating a bright blue sun that highlighted each seam and crook of armor and faceplates that made them their frames. Grimlock wound his servos around Bumblebee’s back, stroking the doorwings that jutted straight into the air. Bumblebee shivered, his blunt-tipped digits gripping tightly at Grimlock’s sides.

Old texts and romantic novels that he’d peeked at in secret came to his processor. Bumblebee realized that their descriptions of spark bonding, that act that served to finalize a courtship between two Cybertronians and bond them for life, did no justice to what he felt now. If he were to be asked in a million stellar-cycles how it felt to bond to the Dinobot below him, he would still not be able to put it into proper words.

But he would remember in his spark and processor just how it felt.

Echoes of their forming sparkbond came into his spark and processor, much like when he’d first noticed that the little flutters of happiness and curiosity in his spark and processor weren’t entirely his. He smiled and buried his faceplates against Grimlock’s neck cables as Grimlock tightened his embrace around the yellow mech.

 _::I love ya, Bee::_ a faint voice told him from within.

Bumblebee grinned into Grimlock’s neck and responded back, his response less faint as their bond strengthened each passing nanoklik. _::I love you too Grim. I love you. And I love our Snarl::_

Grimlock’s spark pulsed happiness at him. No words, spoken aloud or over a bond, were needed to know that that was Grimlock-speak for “I love Snarl too”.

The Dinobot transferred his few memories of his life to Bumblebee, as did the lieutenant to the Dinobot. Their memories of Cybertron, Grimlock with his entire team of Dinobots, Bumblebee’s first fledgling memories in the Autobot base.

Grimlock was visibly upset at the memory of his old team.

_::They’re with you, Grim. They’re always going to be with you::_

Optimus was present in their memories. Grimlock knew he’d disliked the Prime, but for what reason was something lost on him. Bumblebee loved Optimus dearly, the Prime that had raised him as his own son.

Bumblebee’s sadness at the Prime’s absence was pulsed over to Grimlock. The Dinobot sent back comfort to him. _::He’s still with ya, Bee::_

The lieutenant laughed and kissed the Dinobot as their sparks completed the merge. The moment the bond was sealed, an overload that neither knew was there came and swept them up, knocking them out.

Bee was the first one to come to, opening his optics and looking at the sleeping Dinobot’s face. He was instantly reminded of Snarl’s sleeping face. Reaching a servo out, he stroked the orange faceplates with his digits.

“Mmmm… hrmmm,” Grimlock stirred awake, and made optical contact with the yellow-plated mech lying atop him. He purred and gently pushed against the digits on his faceplates, engine rumbling contentedly.

Both mechs lay in the bed of grass for a longer while, even after their sparks separated and retreated back into their respective chambers. They were aware that it might be a long while until they were able to get some time to themselves again.

Suddenly a warning popped up in both of their visual fields – humans were within a three mile radius, advancing at a slow pace.

Bumblebee sighed and got to his pedes, helping the Dinobot to his legs. “Time to go back to the scrapyard.”

When they both returned to the scrapyard, they noticed that there was a group by the TV. They ventured over, and were greeted by the sight of snoozing Snarl splayed out like a starfish on top of sleeping Sideswipe’s chassis. Strongarm was holding back a fit of giggles and taking image captures for blackmail purposes.

Grimlock grabbed Snarl off of Sideswipe, but not before both he and Bumblebee took image captures for themselves.


	12. Grandcarrier

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  **Author's Note:** I don't want to add these tags to the story itself, but here are some further tags for subject matter included only in this chapter: implied MegOP, vague one-sided Ratchet/OP, mentions of Wheeljack/Magnus, past Smokescreen/Bumblebee, past miscarriage... I believe that's it for now.
> 
> Now that that's out of the way, please read on!

“You’re a grandcarrier.”

The voice of his fellow Prime stalled him in his tracks. Optimus looked at the blade in his servos and sheathed it, turning around to face the impish little Prime floating in midair.

Micronus chuckled at the astounded expression on Optimus Prime’s faceplates. “I’m referring to the little yellow scout you took in as your own offspring, Optimus.”

“I was about to inquire if you’d gone mad. Last I remember, I never successfully birthed a sparkling from my own frame.” Optimus blinked his optics and shook his helm. “So what is this about… about me being a grandcarrier?”

“Hah. Did you not hear my first comment, Optimus?”

Between them, a swirling cloud appeared and then cleared up. Optimus’s spark clenched and he reached out for Bumblebee, faceplates contorted in agony, but before he could touch the image the pain stopped. He didn’t know how to put what he felt into words as he saw the yellow scout pull a small frame toward him, expression of bliss and joy and optical fluids streaming down the yellow mech’s faceplates.

“So that is why you said that I am a grandcarrier.”

“Indeed. In his processor he thought of you, and wished you were there to meet her.”

“Her? A femme?”

“Snarl, they call her. Grimlock is especially proud.”

The visage of the Dinobot that had given him so much grief eons ago emerged in the image next to Bumblebee, nuzzling the exhausted scout’s faceplates and kissing the small frame that Bumblebee held in his arms.

The image stopped. Grimlock held Bumblebee in his arms. Bumblebee held the little femme to his chestplates, crying. And though he did not hear it, the little femme had an displeased expression on her faceplates, a sign that she was crying as well.

Optimus felt his spark swell. And for the first time in a long, long time, it was in happiness.

The Prime remembered arriving to the Realm after he had given up his spark to revive Cybertron. He recalled looked back and saw the old members of his team grief-stricken, but happy that his sacrifice would mean a new, reborn Cybertron.

He missed them all. And for a very long time, with each moment he thought of them all.

He was relieved to see that Ratchet had moved on from the long-standing love that he had held for him, and found comfort in another and in his work.

He smiled to hear that Arcee and Bulkhead had bonded.

He almost laughed when he saw that Ultra Magnus and Wheeljack had bickered their way to bondship and produced a very sharp-minded, yet mischievous little femme from their union.

He had known that Smokescreen and Bumblebee would not last long, but he sorrowed with them when they ceased their relationship. He was saddened when Bumblebee transferred out of Iacon’s police to Kaon’s, and was happy to see that the scout he’d raised as his own sparkling was starting to make his own way in the universe.

But he was still sad that he wasn’t there for him physically.

“Of all the mechs or femmes…” Optimus thought aloud, shaking his helm and laughing softly. The image was still there.

Primus, Bumblebee looked so proud. Exhausted, but proud.

“Grimlock treats the scout and the sparkling as if they’re the most delicate things in the universe.”

“Good. If I was told otherwise, I think I would have had it in processor to pay the Dinobot a visit and convince him to change his ways.”

“Hah, as you would, Optimus.” Micronus allowed Optimus one more look at the image of the newly created family before it disappeared into the ether.

“How long ago did Bumblebee become a creator?”

“A few Earth months ago. Don’t give me that look, Optimus. We withheld the news from you so you would be able to focus on the arduous training we’ve been putting you through.”

“I see your point Micronus. However, I still do not agree.”

“Ah, I didn’t expect you to. Now-”

Optimus threw the blade at his pedes and put his servos to his hips. Before the Minicon Prime could react, Optimus firmly stated, “You will let me go to Earth so I may see Bumblebee and my grandcreation.”

“Optimus, I’m not certain we can do that.”

“And why not?”

Micronus regarded the youngest Prime with wary, then motioned for him to follow.

“We can only give you our power for so long, Optimus. We may be mighty ones, regarded as Gods immortal to our race, but even the greatest power eventually subsides and fades away. It taxes us greatly to allow you to manifest to aid your scout, your adopted sparkling, while he is in need of guidance. I do not know how it will affect us if we allowed you to manifest on Earth to see the scout and the sparkling.”

“What is it exactly that drains your powers?”

“A myriad of conditions. It was most taxing on us when we had to send you to Earth to save the human from being killed by the Chompazoid. We had to grant you extra energy to be able to interact with the physical world around you. It is least taxing on our reserves of power to have you merely show up in spirit form.”

Optimus mulled over Micronus’s words as they continued to walk to whatever location it was that the older Prime was leading him.

The Realm of the Primes was dark and seemingly without an end. Optimus disliked it, truthfully; he would have rather been in the Well, in the light with Primus the Creator. But he was pulled into this demesne after he had been in the Well a scant nanoklik, and told by the Primes long gone that they’d needed him there.

And him, being the self-sacrificing mech he was, he allowed it to happen.

A set of five figures he had scarcely seen since his arrival in the Realm appeared in his visual field. He squared his shoulder struts and stood to his tallest height, which admittedly was not as tall as he felt.

“Micronus has said that wish to go back to Earth, and visit your adopted son and his child,” Amalgamous Prime was the first of the five to speak.

Optimus nodded once. “I do.”

Solus Prime clicked her glossa against her dentae. “Does this mean that you want to forego your training and return to Earth in a permanent manner?”

“Not at this time, great Solus. I know I have many more levels of my training to complete, and it is my duty to complete them. However, I also have a duty to Bumblebee.”

“Optimus Prime,” Vector Prime’s gentle voice reached his audio receptors, and he stood at attention. “To allow you to manifest a physical form on Earth would be a very strenuous drain on our power reserves indeed, Optimus Prime, especially if you insist on making yourself visible to both the scout and his sparkling, and the rest of his team as well. Doubly so if you insist on holding the sparkling, which means that we will have to lend extra energy to allot you to interact with the physical world.”

Optimus looked down the wisps that comprised the ground, servo coming to touch his chassis. He closed his optics, taking what Vector Prime had just said into account.

“What if,” Optimus reopened his optics and looked pleadingly at the towering figures before him, “I were to make myself visible only to, and able to interact with, the sparkling?”

The five Primes looked amongst each other. Over the many millennia that they had been in this Realm, with only each other for company, they had developed their own sort of silent language. Optimus watched with fascination as they all communicated with each other without spoken words, but with very vivid facial expressions.

Perhaps at some point he would be able to read them properly.

“That would still sap much of our energy, depending on how long you decided to interact with the Dinobot sparkling.” Onyx had only spoken aloud in Optimus’s presence once, or twice (Optimus couldn’t remember exactly), so the sound of the bestial Prime’s voice was a bit jarring. “But,” Onyx turned his helm to look at his siblings, craning his helm to the left, “I believe it is far more manageable to do this than to reveal yourself to the scout and the rest of his team.”

“Onyx,” Vector hissed, nudging the dark-colored Prime, “we will still have our energy reserves drained. And we still require much more time to build up our reserves for when the great threat arrives, and when we have to eject Optimus from this realm into the physical world once more.”

“This is to allow our fellow Prime to see, at least one time, his grandcreation.”

“This is for his family, Vector. That is all he has left. But then again,” Amalgamous narrowed his optics, “I don’t think I could expect you to understand, as in your spark you forgave Megatronus for putting a blade into Solus’s spark over here.”

Micronus and Optimus cringed at the insult. Solus crossed her arms over her chassis, expression on her faceplates one of displeasure. The one Prime that had yet to speak, Nexus, reached out and touched one of her shoulder struts but was shoved off.

“If I can interrupt and we can go back to the matter at servo here,” Micronus cut in before yet another war split them apart, “will we be able to grant Optimus this opportunity to see the sparkling, at the very least?”

Amalgamous, Onyx, Solus, and Nexus all looked at Vector, who gave them each looks of displeasure before he heaved a great, heavy sigh.

“Very well, Optimus. But it is only for a short time.”

“Thank you,” Optimus bowed his helm. Internally, he was overjoyed.

He heard Micronus call his designation, and he turned around and walked briskly to catch up to the Minicon Prime. Both Primes walked together for a short distance.

“They’re about to send you in, Optimus. Remember to make it quick.”

“I will.”

“And I have put a sleeping spell on them all.”

Optimus blinked his optics and craned his helm curiously. Micronus laughed. “It will last starting the moment that you hit the ground until the moment you are brought back to the Realm.”

“Why is this necessary, if I may ask?”

Micronus gave Optimus a look. “You are only revealing yourself and interacting physically with the sparkling. I don’t think you would want the others to waken and find the sparkling floating in midair.”

Of course. He hadn’t thought about that. The red and blue Prime nodded. “Understood, Micronus.”

A flash of light enveloped him before he could blink, and then when he did blink his optics he found himself in the middle of the scrapyard that Bumblebee and his team called home while on Earth. To his right was a television, cutting a bright slice in the night’s darkness. Seated in front of the television set were the two youngest members, and the Minicon, of Bumblebee’s team. Seated in chairs nearby were a pair of humans.

All were deep in recharge. One of the humans had a very deep snore that made Optimus jolt slightly.

He scanned the environment for any further spark signatures, and found three in a small, crudely assembled shack nearby.

Despite the fact that everyone had been put into a sleep cycle, Optimus still stepped around as lightly as he was able to. It was no easy feat, given his height and weight. He peeked into the opening of the shack, and his spark warmed at the sight of the yellow scout.

Bumblebee’s yellow armor stood out against the darkness in the room. The scout was curled on his side, wrapped in the protective embrace of a strong Dinobot. Grimlock had his helm resting atop Bumblebee’s own, engine rumbling softly.

Optimus stepped over, stopping when Grimlock snorted and when Bumblebee shifted around in his mate’s embrace. When he was certain that they wouldn’t wake from their slumber, he stepped over to the small berth with raised walls that was situated next to the large berth.

Memories flooded his processor, of him seeing the tiny little mechling for the first time, a newspark crying for his deceased carrier. He looked at Bumblebee again, with his wings raised in the air and curled into the loving embrace of his sparkmate.

Sparkmate. He couldn’t believe that the small yellow mechling from his memories had grown into the mech before him.

Couldn’t believe that said mech was now a creator, carried his own sparkling.

_Chirp._

The Prime looked down at the tiny form in the berth, sleepy blue optics blinking curiously at him. He smiled down at her, and enveloped her in his comforting electromagnetic field.

“Hello Snarl.”

Her optics brightened at the mention of her name.

“Hello. I’m your grandcarrier.” He gently picked her up from the berth, tucking her blanket around her frame and holding her in his arms with long-dormant carrier coding coming online. The weight felt familiar – he remembered holding Bumblebee in his arms for the very first time.

Snarl yawned. He kissed the top of her helm, spark full of joy and other similar emotions that he couldn’t verbalize. “It is an honor to finally meet you, little one.”

_Chirp, chirp, chirp._

Optimus looked at the berth again, making certain that Bumblebee and Grimlock were sound in recharge before he began pacing around the little room. Truthfully he would have preferred to take a walk around the outside with the sparkling, but given that he had little time he wanted to make sure he was nearby where he could put her back safely.

“You are absolutely precious,” he held a digit out to her, smiling as she wrapped sharp-tipped claws around it and cooed softly, warbling curiously at him. “Though of course I am very biased, given that I raised your carrier almost from his birth."

_Chirr._

"I remember your carrier, and how small he was when he was first brought to me. He was smaller than you currently are. Much, much smaller.”

The Prime thought back to Cybertron. His spark sank when he remembered the sickly little sparkling being brought to him by Ratchet, and the circumstances.

“Your carrier might relay this to you when you are older, and capable of retaining memories,” he gently stroked the little femme’s faceplates. “He was found as an only survivor of a communal living area in Polyhex that had been bombed. Ultra Magnus told me how he was found, crying in his deceased carrier’s arms. His sire was nowhere to be found. Your carrier wasn’t more than a few solar cycles old. Much younger than you currently are, and he had already been through so much.”

The little femme stared at him, bright optics transfixed. She held onto his every word, though she would not remember them, nor could she understand.

Optimus sighed. A deep secret he had kept from everyone, except Ratchet and Ultra Magnus, came to the forefront of his processor. “At the war’s beginning, I was carrying. I did not know that I had been sparked until I lost my own child.”

He remembered weeping bitterly in the makeshift medical bay with Ratchet by his side, comforting him as best as he was able to. “Perhaps it was for the best, in hindsight. The sparkling would have grown up and been torn between the faction of their carrier, and the faction of their sire. It would not have been an easy sentiment to carry.”

 _Warble?_ Snarl’s optics shifted their focus onto the helm crest of the bot holding her. She raised a servo up, but it was not long enough to reach. Optimus chuckled and leaned his helm down so she could touch it.

“A few solar cycles after I experienced the loss of my sparkling, your carrier was brought to me. He was a newspark, in need of a carrier’s nurturing touch and nature. Being that I was the only one of the Autobots to have recently carried, I was put in charge of him. It was not easy. I led an entire faction of a war, and I still mourned the loss of my sparkling, but now…” Optimus stopped his pacing, glancing over at Bumblebee, who had just murmured something in his recharge. He resumed his pacing, smiling. “Now I had someone to focus my caring energies into. Your carrier needed me greatly. And, as it turned out, I needed him as well.”

 _Chirp!_ Snarl wrapped her digits around the crest and tried to lift herself up by using the one arm, but Optimus quickly stopped her, tucking her back into his arms and laughing quietly. “I am proud of your carrier, and all that he has become. And I know he will be a great carrier to you as well, as I hope that I was to him.”

The Prime felt a faint nudging. A voice echoed in his helm. _Optimus, you have half a klik._

Optimus looked back down at the tiny Dinobot in his arms, memorizing his grandcreation’s every feature. Her little pedes, the shape of her helm, the little doorwings that were cycles away from fully emerging.

He remembered waking up one solar cycle to see Bumblebee sitting up in his sparkling berth, staring at him and chirping in confusion. Upon further inspection, he saw that the mechling’s doorwings had sprouted overnight. And he remembered laughing, because the doorwings were far too large for the little frame.

Snarl yawned, curling into his spark. He sent out comforting pulses to her as he walked back to the berth and laid her down, covering her with her blanket. Optimus took her face in a servo, kissing her forehelm.

She had her carrier’s face.

“I am glad to have met you. And I hope to see you again, little one.”

_Chirp!_

.-.-.

Bumblebee sighed loudly and rolled partway over in berth, sitting up and looking over at the little berth by his side. Snarl was sitting up and looking at the wall opposite them, chirping.

“Hmm. What are you looking at, Snarl?”

At the sound of her name, the sparkling looked back at him with bright optics. She looked back at the wall with an intense look of concentration on her faceplates.

“There’s nothing there,” Bee laughed tiredly, reaching over and pulling Snarl close, putting her on his chassis. All the movement had yet to wake Grimlock. Bee contemplated waking the Dinobot and telling him to put Snarl on his chassis, but he decided against it.

“Okay. Time to recharge. Got a long day tomorrow, alright?”

Snarl chirred softly and reached her servos out toward him, smiling. The motion warmed Bumblebee’s spark, and he kissed each of her sharp-tipped digits. “Alright. Time to recharge for real this time.”

The sparkling curled up in his embrace, optics slowly fluttering shut. Her servos kneaded on his chassis.

As Bumblebee slowly closed his optics, more than ready for a sound recharge, he could have sworn he saw a faint, familiar shadow out of the corner of his optics.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow. This was a fun, emotional rollercoaster, and I'm really glad that so many people found enjoyment in this story.
> 
> Thank you all for reading! It's been a great ride ^^;


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